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DALMATIA
THE QUAEJSTERO Aj^D ISTRIA
JACKSON
VOL. I.
HENRY FROWDE
Oxford University Press Warehouse
Amen Corner, E.C.
DALMATIA
THE QUARNERO AND ISTRIA
CETTIGNE IN MONTENEGRO AND THE ISLAND OF GEADO
T. G. JACKSON, M.A., F.S.A.
HONOEAET FELLOW OF WADHAM COLLEGE, OXFORD
ABCHITECT
ADTHOB OP 'MODEKN GOTHIC A BCH ITECTU RE '
IN THREE VOLUMES
VOLUME I
Oxford
AT THE CLARENDON PRESS
1887
[AH rights reserved"]
<iV^^
^
TO
MY WIFE
THRICE MY COMPANION
ON THE FARTHER SHORES OF ADRIA
I DEDICATE
THIS RESULT OF OUR TRAVELS
PREFACE.
It is not only now when Europe waits to know
whether the war-cloud that threatens her will first
burst in thunder on the Rhine or on the Danube,
nor only in modern times since the Eastern question
has arisen to vex politicians, that the attention of
Englishmen has been engaged by the Balkan penin-
sula and the eastern sea-board of the Adriatic.
English travellers were the first to make these
countries and the monuments of art which they con-
tain known to western Europeans. George Wheler
visited Spalato in 1675, and has left us the earliest
description of the ruins of Diocletian's palace ;
Robert Adam's account of that building, published
in 1 764, is still the best ; the antiquities of Pola
were explored by Stuart in 1750, and splendidly
illustrated in the fourth volume of the great work
that goes by his name ; Sir Gardner Wilkinson in
1 848 published an excellent general account of Dal-
matia Montenegro and part of Herzegovina ; Mr.
Paton's book followed ; more recently Professor
viii Preface.
Freeman has published some brief sketches of the
earher architecture of some of the maritime towns ;
while the well-known researches of Mr. Arthur
Evans in the interior of Bosnia and Herzegovina
have introduced us to a part of Europe till then un-
known. Even foreigners who have written on these
lands have found more readers in our country than
their own, and Professor Eitelberger of Vienna tells
us that the first edition of his book on the mediaeval
art of Dalmatia was almost entirely bought up in
England ^
Of all these South Slavonic countries none in
the estimation of the artist and the historian can
compare with Dalmatia, the narrow strip of rock
and moorland between the mountains and the sea
which fenced out the Turk from the Adriatic, and
stayed the tide of Moslem conquest in the south. In
Dalmatia arts and letters flourished and commerce
sprang up with all her civilizing influences, while
the Slavonic kingdoms of the interior remained in
semi-barbarism, wasting their strength in inter-
necine struggles, and paving the way for the west-
ward progress of the Turkish hordes. This superiority
of Dalmatia is due partly to her maritime position
' He says, ' Dalmaiien tear den Engldndern seit jeJier ein inter-
essantes Land, den meisten Oesterreichern blieb es eine " Terra incog-
nita." ' Kuustdenkmale Dalmatiens, Preface to 2nd edition, 1884.
Preface. ix
which brought her into contact with Italy and the
West, but still more to the survival along her coast
of certain ancient Roman municipalities, which in
the midst of a flood of barbarian colonization kept
alive the traditions of civil order, settled law, and an
ancient culture. Throughout the middle ages they
jealously maintained the civic liberties they in-
herited from the Roman emph^e ; and while outside
their boundaries all the world spoke Illyric, the
citizens still used the language of their Roman fore-
fathers till it passed into its modem form of Italian.
To this day they cling to their ' coltiDXi Latina'
with passionate affection ; and though the Croats,
backed by the Austrian government, are fighting
hard to Slavonize the cities and reduce them to the
same rule as the rural districts, the issue of the
struggle is still doubtful. The survival of these
waifs and strays of the Roman empire is unique ; it
is an liistorical phenomenon of almost unparalleled
interest ; and one cannot contemplate without regret
the possibility of its disappearance.
The Roman antiquities of Dalmatia and Istria
have been well described and illustrated, but the
rich stores of mediaeval art in which those countries
abound have hitherto been but little noticed and have
remained generally unknown. The only work of
importance on this subject is that of Professor
X Preface.
Eitelberger, who describes with considerable minute-
ness the Eomanesque and Gothic architecture at Arbe
Zara Traii Spalato and Ragusa, and in his second
edition has added some brief notes on Sebenico and
the valley of the Kerka. In another work he has
described the churches of Parenzo and Grado. His
premature death in 1885 j)re vented the visit he had
proposed making to Cattaro in the company of
Professor Gelcich of Ragusa. His work stops short
of the renaissance, and leaves untouched not only
Cattaro but all the islands, which are scarcely in-
ferior in interest to the mainland.
In the following pages I have endeavoured to give
a tolerably complete description of all the archi-
tectural monuments of importance on the mainland
of Dalmatia, the islands, the Croatian shore of the
Quarnero, and the Litorale of Istria from Pola to
Aquileja. To this I have added an account of the
island of Grado, which though never like Aquileja
part of Istria, is so intimately connected with
Dalmatia as the metropolitan see of the Vene-
tian dominion that it naturally belongs to my sub-
ject. Grado is I believe unknown to English art
students except by report, and many of the places
I shall describe will be I am sure unknown to
them even by report. Few persons have any idea
of the beauty and extent of the art-treasures of
Preface. xi
these countries, which indeed so far as I know
have never before been explored from end to end
by a professional student of architecture.
The book is fully illustrated with plates and cuts.
The illustrations are not confined to architectural
subjects, but include several examples of church
plate and silversmiths' work, in which Dalmatia is
unusually rich, and also several general views of
the towns which will give an idea of Dalmatian
scenery. A few illustrations, chiefly plans of build-
ings, are taken from other works, and these are in
all cases acknowledged ; the rest are from original
drawings of my own.
The brief sketches of the history of Dalmatia and
that of Istria which will be found in the first and
last volumes are gathered from a variety of sources,
some of which are not easily accessible, and they
will therefore it is hoped have a certain value. I
have also prefixed to each place a short sketch of
the local history, derived in many cases from unpub-
lished records. The materials for Dalmatian history
can be collected only in the country ; the works of
the local historians, of whom there are many, often
exist only in MS., and even when printed are
seldom found beyond the province. Many of them
have been prepared with great care, and most of
them contain valuable extracts from original docu-
xii Preface.
ments ; but the reader has to be on his guard how
he accepts the conclusions of a Latin or a Croat
MTiter in a country Avhere politics of creed and race
run so high.
Travelling in Dalmatia is simple enough for those
who are satisfied with the glimpse at the four or
five principal towns which may be had by travelling
down the coast in the Austrian Lloyd's steamers. To
do more than this is not so easy, as may be gathered
from several incidents of our travels recorded in the
following pages, and ordinary tourists would do well
to keep to the beaten track. But there are no
difficulties to deter those who are strong and well,
and enjoy exposure and exercise, and can put up
with rustic fare and homely quarters, and speak the
Italian language. In aU my three visits to Dalmatia,
in 1882, 1884, and 1885, my wife was with me, and
we agreed that we had often fared worse nearer
home. The trifling discomforts we encountered were
more than compensated by the pleasure of explora-
tion ; the keen delight of sailing away perhaps in
early morning from some little mainland port to the
unknown wonders of some island, ignorant what
there might be to see there, no guide-book having
robbed us of our discovery, but never except once
failing to find beauties of art and nature exceeding
our expectations.
Preface. xiii
My task has been a laborious one, and has occu-
pied more time than I could well spare from my art :
it would have been impossible but for the ready
help afforded me on all occasions by the local
authorities, and the antiquaries and others in the
country interested in my work. To name all to
whom I am indebted would be difficult ; but I must
in particular express my obligations to the arch-
bishop of Zara for leave to enter the Benedictine
nunnery ; to Monsignor Bianchi, Professors Brunelli
and Smirich, and Signor Artale, of Zara ; to Mon-
signor Fosco, bishop of Sebenico, and Dr. Galvani of
the same city ; to Professor Bulic of Spalato ; to
Conte Fanfogna-Garagnin, podesta of Trail, and his
sons Conte Gian Domenico and Conte Gian Luca ;
to Canonico Don Andrea Alibranti and Professor
Vid Vuletic Vukasovic of Curzola ; to the bishop
of Ragusa for access to the treasury and the
statuette of S. Biagio ; to Professor Giuseppe
Gelcich of Ragusa, who accompanied me to Cattaro,
his native place ; to Signor Hortis, the civic librarian
of Trieste ; to Dr. Carlo Gregorutti of Fiumicello
near Aquileja ; and to many others, from whom I
have not only received much valuable information
and help, but in many cases copies of their own
publications, from which I have derived material
assistance. I have also been indebted to Mr. Richard
xiv Preface.
Greenham and the late Mr. Grant Greenham of
Trieste, and to Signer Simeone Salghetti-Drioli of
Zara, for much hospitable attention and many useful
introductions. I cannot say enough of the kindness
and hospitality with which we were received every-
where on our travels by those to whom we brought
introductions, and not unfrequently by others to
whom our only introduction was that we were
strangers. The modern Dalmatians deserve to in-
herit the character given by an ancient geographer
to their predecessors the Illyrians of old : —
OeocrejSeii o avTOVs ayap
Koi a<p6Spa SiKalov^, <pacr), /ca) (piXo^evovs.
T. G. J.
II, Nottingham Place:
March 4, 1887.
Il^DEX TO THE ILLUSTRATION'S.
Map of Dalmatia, Istria and Croatia at heyinning of Vol. I.
Almissa.
View of town and castle Mirabella
Aquileja.
Duomo. Interior view
Do. Capital in crypt
Do. Patriarchal throne . . .
Do. Ascent to choir
Akbe.
Palazzo Nimira
Seal of Marc' Antonio de Donainis
Campanile
Do. Inscription on spire
Duomo. Inscription in south wall
Do. Capital in nave
Do. Ciborio
Do. Reliquary of S. Cristoforo
S. Giovanni Battista. Plan. ...
Do. View of the ajDse
Do. InscrijDtion belonging
noAV in S. Giustina
View of the city
BUENUM.
Roman arches. Suplja Crkva
Castelnuovo.
General view ...
Convent of Savina. Crosses
treasury ...
Do. Silver plate in do.
to
Volume
and page.
Plate.
ii. l68
iii. 396
LXIV.
iii. 397
iii. 400
iii. 402
LXV
iii. 208
iii. 210
iii. 210
Lvn.
iii. 212
iii. 216
i. 214
i. Fig. 5.
iii. 218
LVIII.
iii. 221
iii. 226
iii. 226
LIX.
iii. 233
iii. 237
ii. 194
iii. 19
iii. 24
LI.
iii. 28
LII.
Cut.
52
122
123
94
95
96
97
99
100
lOI
55
73
XVI
Index to the I/hcstrations.
Volume
Plate.
Cut.
and page.
Cattabo.
Details of the duomo and other
buildings
iii. 38
LIII.
The Duomo. Sacristy doorway-
iii. 43
74
Do. Inscription over sacristy
doorway
iii. 43
75
Do. Ei^itaph of Andreascio
and Maria Saraceuis
iii. 44
76
Do. Ciborio
iii. 45
77
Do. Inscription to Bishop
Deodati
iii. 47
78
Plans of La Collegiata and S. Luca . . .
iii. 50
79
Cettigne.
View of convent and old tower
iii. 60
80
Cherso.
Street view ...
iii. 115
85
CURZOLA.
Seal of the Comune ...
ii. 237
56
General view of town
ii. 248
xxxin.
Duomo. "West front
ii. 250
xxxiv.
Do. Interior view
ii. 252
XXXV.
Do. Capital in south nave arcade
ii. 254
XXXVI.
Do. Sacristy doorway in north
aisle
ii. 256
58
Do. Mason's marks on the apses
ii. 265
59
Knocker on door of Palazzo Arneri ...
ii. 268
60
Cloister of the Badia ...
ii. 274
XXXVII.
Epitaph in church of the Badia
ii. 276
61
Dernis.
Turkish minaret
ii. 180
53
Capital of Turkish workmanship
ii. 181
54
FlUME.
Poman arch ...
iii. 165
91
Epitaph in church of Tcrsatto
iii. 170
92
Grado.
View of the city from the lagune
iii. 409
124
Duomo. Ground-plan
iii. 413
125
Do, Inscription in mosaic floor. . .
iii. 415
126
Do. Capital in iiave
iii. 417
127
Index to tiic Illustrations
xvu
Duonio. Pierced window s-lab
Do. Part of mosaic pavement, in
colour
Do. Patriarchal throne...
Do. Details of do.
Do. Pulpit
lisTEIA.
Group of Istrian peasants
J.\K {in Hunjary),
East end of church and various details
of its architecture
AVest doorway of do. ...
Lesixa.
View of the city with the tower of
S. Marco ...
Porta Maggiore and Palazzo Eai-
mondi
The Loggia and Forte Spagnuolo
The Duomo. Ambo and choir stalls . . .
Do. Pastorale of Bp. Patrizio
S.Francesco. Nave window...
Do. AVest doorway
Mezzo.
Chalice
Window in chiesa matrice
Tower of S. Domenico
Diagram of paintings in reredos of
Fi-anciscan church
MUGGIA VECCHIA.
Ground- plan of church
Interior view ...
NOXA.
Views and plans of S. Croce and
S. Nicolo...
Doorhead from S. Croce
S. Marcella. Ca2)ital from ...
S. Ambrogio. Exterior view
Do. Detail of window in do....
. VOL. I. b
Volume
and page.
iii. 420
111. 422
iii. 427
iii. 428
iii. 430
iii. 249
11. 154
ii. 1^6
Plate.
LXYI.
11.
220
XXVIII
ii.
222
XXIX.
ii.
224
XXX.
ii.
226
XXXI.
ii.
229
ii.
230
XXXII.
ii.
388
L.
ii.
390
ii.
394
ii. 396
iii. 372
iii- 373
• 342
. 214
. 214
• 349
• 349
XXY.
XXVI.
ii. 2 1 8 I xxvii.
XI.
I. Fig. 2.
I. Fig. 4.
Cut.
128
129
130
131
r^6
71
72
72a
120
121
i8
19
XVIU
Index to tJie Illustrations.
Volume
and page.
Plate.
NOVIGKAD.
View of the castle
Sculptured panel
OSSEEO.
General view ...
Nave capital ...
Ostensorio in treasury of duomo
Episcopal throne
Sketch-plan of ancient basilica
Paeenzo.
Duomo. Ground-plan
Do. InscrijDtion of Euphrasius on
mosaics of apse ...
Do. Do. Do. on ciborio
Do. The Atrium
Do. Monogram of Bishop Eu-
phrasius ...
Do. Nave capitals, &c. ...
Do. Interior of the apse
Do. Mosaic floor in chapel B ...
Do. Do. do. C ...
Do. Stalls in a side chapel
Canonica. View of front
Do. "Window ...
Do. Inscription
POLA.
Inscription of Bp. Handegis on the
duomo
S. Michele in Monte. Ground-plan ...
S. Maria di Canneto. Fragment
Rag USA.
Old doorway on hill near the duomo...
Panel from S. Stefano ...
Palace. View of the Piazza, with the
Rector's palace, Dogana and
Torre dell' Orologio
Do. Geometrical details of the
palace
Do. il^sculapius capital ...
1. 327
i. 214 1 1. Fig. 3.
ni. 100
iii. loi
iii. 102
iii. 104
iii. 106
iii. 311
iii. 312
iii- 313
iii. 316
iii. 317
iii. 318
iii. 320
iii. 326
iii. 326
iii. 328
iii. 330
iii- 331
iii. 332
111. 295
iii. 298
iii. 301
ii. 327
i. 214
11- 332
ii- 333
'i- 334
LXI.
LXII.
Lxiri.
I. Fiof. I.
XXXVIII.
XXXIX.
XL.
Cut.
16
«I
82
83
84
106
Fig.
107
108
109
no
III
112
103
104
105
62
Index lo the Illustrations.
XIX
Ragi'sa (cantinued).
Palace. Capital with amoiiui
Do. Capital (B) and capital with
judgment of Solomon
Do. Cortile of Palace and that of
the Sponza
Do. Console with the figure of
Justice
Do. Capital with the Piector
ministering justice
The reliquary of 8. Biagio in
duomo
The Sponza
Dominican convent. The cloister
Do. Triple arch at west end of
church
Franciscan convent. The cloister . . .
ad-
the
do. Capitals in cloister
do. do.
do. do.
Epitaph of Mag. Mycha
Do. of Gino di Alexio ...
Do. ofMag, Radun
Silver statuette of the Saint
Do.
Do.
Do.
Do.
Do.
Do.
S. Biagio.
Salon A.
Map of the city
Basilica. Ground-plan
Amphitheatre ...
S. LORKNZO IN PaSEXATICO.
Duomo. Ground-plan and section
Details of columns of do.
Pierced stone window in do. iii
Do.
Do.
Sebenico.
View of town from the landing-place
Duomo. Extex'ior, from the piazza ...
Do. Ground-plan
Do. The Lion doorway ...
Do. Interior
Do. Capital of north-west pier
of lantern
b 2
Volume
Plate.
and
page.
ii
335
ii
336
XI.I,
ii
342
XLII.
ii
344
ii.
344
XL I II.
ii.
350
XLIV.
ii.
358
XLV.
ii.
364
XLVI.
ii.
366
XLVII.
ii.
370
XLVm.
ii.
370
ii.
371
ii.
372
,..
ii.
373
ii.
373
ii.
373
ii.
374
XLIX.
ii.
87
ii.
89
ii.
98
iii.
336
iii.
337
..,
iii.
338
376
378
XIL
382
384
XIII.
386
...
i.
388
XIV.
Cut,
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
42
43
44
"3
114
"5
21
22a
XX
Index to the Illustrations.
Do.
Do.
Sebenico {continued).
Duomo. Stringcourse over nave ar-
cades
View of west end and cam-
panile
Apse window
Doorway of house belonging to Giorgio
Orsini
Costume of peasants ...
Segna,
Castle of Xehaj
Spalato.
Plan of Diocletian's palace
Porta Aurea. Elevation and plan . . .
Temple of Jupiter {the duomo). Ground-
plan
Do. Section
Interior
Finial on I'oof ...
The pulpit
Capital of pulpit
Panels of great doors . . .
The choir stalls
Elevation, plans and
Do.
The Duomo.
Do.
Do.
Do.
Do.
Do.
Tlie Camijauile.
details
Do. Escutcheon on do.
Treasury. Cyjiher on a chalice
The Baptistery {Tem2)le o/j:Esculapius).
Plan and section
Do. Figure sculptui'e on
font
Epitaph of archbishop John of Eavenua ii.
Epitaph of arclibishop Laurentius
Epitaph of princesses Catharine and
Margaret
SS. Triniti. Plan, section and ele-
vation
Staircase in cortile of a private house ii.
Trau
General view from the sea
Volume
and page.
Plate.
i.
390
i.
392
XV.
i.
i.
i.
399
406
408
iii.
193
ii.
22
ii.
28
ii.
33
ii.
33
ii.
34
XVI.
ii.
39
ii.
44
XVII.
ii.
45
...
ii.
48
XVIII.
ii.
50
XIX.
ii.
54
XX.
ii.
56
ii.
60
ii.
65
ii.
69
ii.
70
ii.
70
ii.
71
ii.
73
ii.
82
ii.
106
Cut.
23
24
25
26
93
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
45
Index to the Illustrations.
XXI
Ground-plan
Capital of northern nave
do. of southern apf;e
Monosram of Cireneus
Trau (continued).
Duomo. Ciround-plan
Do. West doorway
Do. Inscription on lintel of do.
Do. Detail of sculpture on do.
Do. East end, exterior view
Do. Nave capital
Do. Silver brocca in treasury
Do. Inscription on campanile
The Loggia. Capital of
Do. View ...
Tbieste.
Duf mo,
Do.
Do.
Do.
Ugliaxo.
Ploughs used h^ Dalmatian peasantry
Veglia.
Duomo. Capital in nave
Do. Capital in nave
Do. Inscription on a column of
nave
Do. Interior. Nave column and
anibo
Do. Pala of silver gilt ...
Do. Do. one of the figures
in do. ...
S. Quirino. East end
S. Maria. Capital from
Inscription on Torre dei Frangijiani . . .
View from the sea
Yraxa.
View of castle
Zaea.
Duomo and 8. Donato. Plans of
S. Donato. Doorway of
Do. Interior of
S. Pietro Vecchio. Plan of . . .
S. Lorenzo. Interior and plan of ...
Vol
and
uuie
page.
t
riate.
ii.
IIO
ii.
112
XXI.
ii.
"3
,
ii.
ii8
XXII. !
ii.
I20
XXIII.
ii.
123
ii.
126
ii.
138
ii.
141
ii.
142
XXIV.
iii.
354
iii.
358
iii.
359
iii.
361
i.
337
iii.
141
i.
214
I. Fig. 9.
iii.
143
iii.
144
iii.
148
LV.
iii.
148
iii.
152
LVI,
i.
214
I. Fig. 7.
iii.
153
iii.
i.
154
360
251
253
...
256
11.
262
264
III.
46
47
48
49
51
116
117
1x8
119
17
86
87
87a
88
89
90
20
I
2
XXll
Index to the lUustvatiom
Volume
Plate.
Cut.
Zaba (continued).
and page. 1
S. Lorenzo. Capital ...
i. 214
I. Fig. 6.
S. Orsola
Plan of
i. 266
4
Duomo.
Stringcourse over nave ar-
cades
i. 271
5
Do.
Interior of choir . . .
i. 272
IV.
Do.
Inscription on ciborio
i. 274
6
Do.
Choir stalls
i- 275
7
Do.
West front ...
i. 278
V.
Do.
Pastorale of archbisliop
Vala-
resso
i. 282
VI.
S. Grisogono. Ground-plan . . .
i. 289
8
Do.
Eastern apses.
Ex-
terior
i. 290
VII.
S. Maria
Campanile
i. 300
VIII.
Do.
Plans and sections of Sala
Capitolare
i. 302
.
9
Do.
Stringcourse in do.
i- 303
10
Do.
Tomb of the abbess Ve-
kenega
i- 304
II
Do.
Inscription on do.
i- 305
12
Do.
Capitals in chapel
under
tower ...
i- 307
13
S. Fi'ancesco. Choir stalls . . .
i. 311
14
Do.
Chalices
i. 312
IX.
Do.
Old capital Ijang
at . . .
i. 214
I. Fig. 8.
S. Simeone. One end of the
silver
ark ...
i. 318
X.
"Window and balcony ...
i. 320
...
15
CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF THOSE INSCRIPTIONS
WHICH ARE GIVEN IN FACSIMILED
A.D.
Vol.
Page.
c- 530-540-
Parenzo.
Pioman characters . . .
]II.
312.
571-580.
Grado.
Do. do.
III.
415, Plate
LXVI, 422
680.
Spalato.
IrregularEoman. Squ
areOs
II.
10, Fig. 37
c. 800-820.
Cattaro.
Fanciful Eoman. Squ
are Os
III.
43> 44.
857-
Pola.
Do. do. Square Cs
III.
295-
1099.
Spalato.
Eoman approaching
Lom-
bardies ...
II.
70, Fig. 38.
im.
Zara.
Do. do.
do.
much abbreviated
I.
305-
1 190.
Yeglia.
Do. do.
do.
III.
143-153-
c. 1200 1
Arbe.
Do, do.
do.
III.
2X2.
1240.
Trail.
Lombard ics
II.
113-
1242.
Spalato.
Do.
II.
71-
1251.
Pareuzo.
Do.
III.
332.
1254.
Cattaro.
Do.
III.
47-
1287.
Arbe.
Do.
III.
216.
c. 1317I
Eagusa.
Do.
II.
373,T^ig-68
1332.
Zara.
Do.
I.
274.
1363-
Eagusa.
Do.
...
II.
373, Fig. 69
1422.
Traii,
Do.
ir.
138.
1428.
Eagusa.
Do.
II.
373, Fig. 70
1430.
Curzola.
Do.
11.
276.
c. 1439?
Tevsatto.
Eoman fancifully ;
ibbre-
viated ...
III.
170.
1454-
Arbe.
Pioman
III.
233-
1 This series gives the history of the character used fr
the renaissance. It will be observed that the Gothic or
I can recall no instances of it in Dalinatia except those
393) 397' ^^'^ even in those cases it is mixed with Lombar
oni the sixth century' to
' black letter ' is absent,
noted in vol. i. pp. 318,
die or Roman lettering-.
COXTEISTTS OF YOLUME I.
CHAPTER I.
PAGE
The Histoey of Dalmatia ...... i
First Period, Dalmatia under the Komans, pp. i-io.
Second Period, Dalmatia under the Byzantine empire,
down to the arrival of the Hungarians, pp. 10-35. Third
Period, Dalmatia contested by Venice and Hungary,
pp. 36-141. Fourth Period, Dalmatia under Venice,
pp. 1 41-164. Social condition under Venice, pp. 168-
181. Modern condition of Dalmatia, pp. 1 81-192.
Table of Kings of Hungary, p. 193.
CHAPTER II.
Dalmatia . . . . . . . . . -195
The country and the peojile, pp. 195-203. Sketch
of the history of architecture in Dalmatia, pp. 203-226.
List of principal buildings, with their dates, p. 226.
CHAPTER III.
Zara . . . . . . . . . -230
Description of the city, p. 230. History, 1). 243.
Roman remains, p. 246.
CHAPTER IV.
Zara .......... 249
S. Donato, p. 249. Other churches, pp. 261-267.
The duonio, p. 267. Grisogono, p. 288. S. Maria,
p. 296. S. Francesco, p. 309. S. Simeone, p. 312.
Domestic architecture, p. 321.
xxvi Contents.
CHAPTER V.
PAGE
NOVIGEAD 322
CHAPTER VI.
S. MiCHELE d' Ugliaxo 332
CHAPTER VII.
KoxA 338
CHAPTER VIII.
Vkana 353
CHAPTER IX.
Sebenico 368
History, p. 368. The city, p. 376. The duomo,
p. 378. Other churches, p. 405. House of Giorgio
Orsini, p. 406. Costume, p. 407. The river Kerka,
p. 409. Scardona, 411. The falls of the Kerka,
p. 414.
APPENDIX.
Contract of Giorgio Orsini, Architect of the duomo of Sebenico 416
ERRATA TO VOLUME I.
P. 27, line 2, for them read the Narentines.
P. 29, line 1^, for Belgrade read Belgrad.
P. 33, line 9, and p. 153, line 25, for Illyrian read Illyric.
P. 39, line 2 7, for or Vranjica read of Yranjica.
P. 41, line 2, for Tartar read Scythian.
Pp. 43, 77, 229, 2^*], for Ursini read Orsini.
P. 61, line 2, for Mega Juppanus read Megajupanu3.
P. 178, line 9, for Titian read Tintoret.
P. 195, for Diolcea read Dioclea.
P. 196, note, line i, for Primorje read Primorie.
P. 274, line 19, for Littorale read Litorale.
P. 281, line 2^, for Cassione read S. Cassiano.
P. 325, add references to notes.
P. 416, heading to Appendix, for p. 98 read p. 389.
CHAPTER I.
History of Dalmatia.
First Period. — Dalmatia under the Romans, and down to the
fall of the Western empire, A.d. 476.
Second Period. — Dalmatia under the Byzantine empire, down
to the arrival of the Hungarians, a.d. i 102.
Third Period. — Dalmatia contested by Hungary and Venice,
down to the final Venetian occupation, a.d. 1409- 14 20.
Fourth Period. — Dalmatia under the Venetians, down to the
fall of the riepuhlic, A.D. 1797.
Review of the social condition of Dalmatia under Venetian
rule from a.d. i 409-1 797.
Present condition of the province.
Chronological table of the Kings of Hungary down to 1526.
FIRST PERIOD.
Dalmatia under the Romans.
The early history of Illyria, like that of other Early in-
countries, is lost in myths and legends. Its name
is variously derived from lUyrius a son of the
Cyclops Polyphemus and Galatea \ or from Hyllus
a son of Hercules who conquered it and founded a
kingdom there ; the Argonauts find their way
thither by ascending the Ister from the Euxine
sea, and descending a mythical branch into the
Adriatic near the peninsula which they name
Istria in memory of their route ; and the Briseides
insulae in the Quarnero are renamed after Ab-
* Appian.
VOL. I. B
2 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. I.
syrtus, the brother of Medea, who there met his
unhappy fate. After the Trojan war Idomeneus
and Diomede and other rovmg Homeric heroes
wander to the shores of Dahnatia, and the Li-
burni, expelled from Asia, conquer the country,
and settle there.
When the page of veritable history opens we
find the Liburni occupying the country as far
south as the Titius or Kerka, a race of hardy
mariners who afterwards played their part in the
Celtic triumphs of the Roman navy. But in the seventh
tion. century before Christ a Celtic element was infused
into the population by the irruption of the Galli
Senones who founded Senogallia in Italy, Tedastum
(Modrussa) and Senia (Segna) in what is now
Croatia, and established a kingdom of lUyria,
extending over Istria, Carnia and the northern
part of Macedonia, with Scodra or Scutari in
Albania as its capital \ The Greeks, ever seeking
to plant fresh colonies on the shores of the
Mediterranean, did not overlook the natural ad-
vantages of a coast so sheltered by islands and
Greek indented by natural havens. A colony of Sicilian
B.C. 406! Greeks from Syracuse was settled by Dionysius
^ Dr. Cubich traces some peculiarities of the dialect of the
island of Veglia to a Celtic source (Notizie storiche sull'
isola di Veglia). Franceschi (L'Istria, ch. 4) gives a list of
proper names of places and families in Istria which have a
Celtic origin. Mr. Evans (Bosnia and Herzegovina) compares
Arauso (Vrana) with Arausio (Orange), Andetrium (Clissa)
with Anderida (Pevensey), Narbona or Narona with Narbonne.
Corinium (Karin)"^!. our English Cirencester.
Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 3
on the island of Issa (Lissa), and one from the b.c. 385.
island of Paros in the Aegean built a new Paros
or Pliaros on the island of Lesina ; Dyrrhachium or
Epidamnus, Epidaurus, where Pagusa Vecchia now
stands, and Tragurium (Trail) were Greek colonies
on the mainland, the last named being peopled
by Syracusans from Issa, and inscriptions found
on the island of Curzola prove that there were
Greek settlements there also.
In the third century before Christ Illyria was iiiyrian
united under the powerful rule of Agron son of of Agron.
Pleuratus, and his widow Teuta, regent during
the minority of her stepson Pineus, came into
collision with the Romans, who now for the first
time carried their arms across the Adriatic. The
islanders of Lissa, unable to protect themselves
against the attempts of the Illyrians on their
liberties, appealed to the Romans for protection, b.c. 232.
It was the interval of twenty-two years between
the first and second Punic wars ; the Romans
had leisure to listen to the appeal, and they had
already received other complaints from Italian
merchantmen of the frequent piracies of the
Illyrians. Three ambassadors were sent to Queen
Teuta to command her to desist from injuring the
friends of the Rej)ublic, but the queen put two of
the envoys to death and imprisoned the third \
' The niurdejed ambassadors were lionoured with statues at
Rome. ' Hoc a Komauo populo tribui solebat injuria caesis,
eicut et P. Juuio, et Tito Coruncaiio qui ab Teuca Illyriorum
regina interfecti eraut.' Pliii. Nat. Hist, xxxiv. 6.
Ji 2
4 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i.
First The Romans at once sent into Illyria both consuls
wa'^''^^ Cn. Fulvius Centumalus and L. Postumius Albinus
^' with 20,000 infantry and 2000 cavahy. As usual
they found allies in the enemies' ranks. Demetrius,
a Greek who held Corcyra (Corfii) for Queen
Teuta together with Pharos (Lesina) his native
place, surrendered them both to Fulvius, and the
queen was driven from one stronghold to another
and finally shut up in Phizon (Pisano) in the
Bocche di Cattaro, and compelled to sue for peace.
Demetrius was rewarded with his native island
Pharos and a share of the queen's dominions, and
Teuta was compelled to pay tribute to Pome for
the fourth part of her territory, which was all that
was left to her.
Second Domotrius however was faithless to his new
Illyrian
war. masters ; on the death of Teuta he married Tri-
teuta the mother of Pineus and repudiated wife
of Agron, and making himself guardian of Pineus,
who was still a minor, took advantage of the
second Punic war to throw off his allegiance to
the Pomans. L. Aemilius PauUus was sent to
chastise him, his stronghold Pharos was razed to
the ground, and he himself driven to take refuge
at the court of Macedon, where he continued for
some time his intrigues against the Pomans.
istriare- The Plyriau kingdom began to fall to pieces
lUyria. after this time. The Istrians revolted and formed
themselves into an independent state which main-
tained its liberties till B.C. 178, when it fell under
tlie power of Pome. The Dalmatians who first
Ch. I.] History of Dahnatia. 5
begin to be heard of in the second century B.C. are The Dai-
said to have been Illyrians of the country between become in-
the Narenta and the Cettina (Narona and Tilurus) B^aTso"
who revolted against Gentius the last king of
lUyria, and following the example of the Istrians,
established an independent republic around the
city of Dalmium or Delminium, in the interior,
which though sometimes tributary to Rome con-
tinued to exist for 200 years till finally absorbed
into the Empire. Their territory was afterwards
extended to the river Titius (Kerka) which thence-
forward divided Dahnatia and Liburnia.
The Illyrian kingdom itself came to an end in End of
r, \ r^ • • 1 1 • 1 • f^ Illyrian
B.C. 168 wiien (jrentius was involved m the rmn 01 kingdom.
Perseus, and Macedonia and Illyria were made
provinces of Rome. The interference of the Dal- First Dai-
matian
matians with Roman allies brought upon them the war.
chastisement of the Republic, and in the second Second do.
Dalmatian war Delminium was destroyed by Publ. ^"^^ ^^^'
Scipio Nasica, after which the Dalmatians fixed
their capital at Salona '. Salona was taken by L.
^ Appian describes Delminium as ' egregie muiiitum, et
operum machiiiarumque labor propter altitudinem moenium
iiiutilis videbatur,' de bell. Illyr, The site of Delminium has
been much disputed and was long thought undiscoverable.
Thomas Archid. (i 200-1 268) ^ys ' sed ubi haec civitas Delmis
in Dalmatiae partibus fuerit non satis patet,' ch. i, but he else-
where mentions some old walls ' in superioribus partibus ' which
were said to represent it. Modern antiquaries believe they
have found Delminium at Dunino or Duvno, a village in the
interior near Sign, though some with Mojnmsen place it at
Gardun near Trilj in the same district ; vid/Bulletino di Storia
Dalmata (Spalato, March, 1885).
History of Dalmatia.
[Ch. I.
Eoman
colonies
Fifth Dal
matian
war.
B.C. 50.
Sixth do.
B.C. 48.
Caecilius Metellus in 117, by surprise it is said,
and was made a Roman colony, and in B.C. 78 a
colony was planted at Jadera (Zara), a town
already in alliance with Rome.
The Dalmatians continually molested the Roman
colonies and towns, and taking advantage of the
civil wars of Caesar and Pompey, for a time defied
the power of Rome. One army sent by Caesar
was destroyed, a second was driven back to Salona,
and his lieutenant Vatinius, who was sent there
in B.C. 45, held his ground with difficulty. Vatinius
writes to Cicero from Narona that he had stormed
six Dalmatian towns, and among them Narona
the largest and strongest of them all, but had
been unfairly obliged by the snow, cold and rain
of a Dalmatian December to abandon his con-
quests. Cicero replies ' may the Gods plague the
Dalmatians for giving you so much trouble,' and
adds that the conquest of so warlike a people
would add lustre to his achievements \ Vatinius
however was not destined to reap any laurels
Seventh do. there, for after the death of Caesar the Dalmatians
attacked him and drove him with loss to Epi-
damnus (Durazzo).
Octavianus in person led an army against the
Dalmatians, B.C. 34, and recovered Promona, but he
was wounded and did not subdue their resistance
till his return in the following spring. In B.C. 29
he celebrated his Dalmatian triumph, and it is
B.C. 43.
Eighth do.
B.C. 34.
^ Ep. Lib. V. 10.
to Vatinius.
It was Cicero's policy just then to be civil
Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 7
said that one of the two figures on the shield of
tlie famous statue of Augustus in the Capitol
represents a vanquished Dalmatian.
The final struggle of the Dalmatians for freedom Tenth
was made a.d. 6, under Bato a Dalmatian general war.
of courage and experience, and another Bato who " ' "
was a Pannonian. They defeated a Boman army
inider Caecina and Tiberius, but were conquered
by German icus, Tiberius, and Postumius ; their
last stronghold Andetrium (Clissa) surrendered, Daimaiia
Bato was carried prisoner to Bome, and Dalmatia subdued.
became finally part of the province of Blyricum.
Under the Boman Empire the maritime district
of Dalmatia seems to have had a propraetor or
legate of its own, and the whole province was
divided into dioeceses or conventus each Math a
central city to which the inhabitants of the con-
ventus resorted for public or private business,
there being three such conventus in maritime
Dalmatia, those of Scardona, Salona and Narona.
Salona in time came to be looked upon as the
capital of the provmce of Dalmatia and became a
great and populous city, though Constantine Por-
phyrogenitus exaggerated its dimensions grossly
when he described it as having been half as large
as Constantinople.
Under the Empire Dalmatia probably flourished
as it has never done since, though even then it
seems to have met with something of the neglect
that has at all times been its portion. Pliny
apologises for detaining his readers with any
8 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. I.
mention of the people, or puzzling them with the
•uncouth names of their towns. And yet in every
part of the province remains of Eoman splendour
are to be seen, affording evidence of wealth, culture,
and considerable population in places that are now
miserable villages like Nona Ossero Stobrez and
Besca, or barren and unmhabited wildernesses like
those where stand the two solitary arches of
Burnum or the few shattered walls of vanished
Promona ^
A.D. 305. In A.D. 305 the Emperor Diocletian, a native of
abdicates. Dioclca, near the lake of Scutari, abdicated and
retired to a villa he had built for himself at
Aspalathus near Salona, where he lived till 313,
one year after the victory of Constantine at the
Milvian bridge.
A.D. 454. In the fifth century Marcellinus a general
under Mar- attached to Actius cscapod after the murder of
his patron by Valentinian III, and on the death
of Majorian established himself in Dalmatia as an
independent prince. Marcellinus adhered to the
religion of ancient Rome in an age when the
Empire generally had become Christian. During
his reign occurred the great irruption into lUyria
of Goths Alans Vandals and Huns, and the Suevi
A.D. 461. succeeded in penetrating as far as Dalmatia but
met with a vigorous resistance and were compelled
A.D. 468. to retire. Marcellinus bequeathed his sovereignty
j^uiius ^Q j^^g nephew Julius Nepos who had married a
Ei'So^oTepoi' ru)v aXXwi' einrepiav dejxaTav to tolovtov Befia iTvy)(aviV.
Coust. Porphyr. de aclm. Imp. c. xxx. p. 141, ed. Bonn.
Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 9
niece of the Empress, and who succeeded his
uncle in 468, but was persuaded in 472 to ex-A.o. 472.
change the security of his hereditary kingdom for
the perils of the Imperial throne. Before however
he was able to establish himself firmly in his new
dignity, his authority was disputed by a rival ;
Gundobald the Burgundian, who had succeeded to
the influence of his uncle the Patrician Bicimer,
invested an obscure soldier. Glycerins, with the Giycerius,
purple ; but Glycerins was unsupported by any
considerable party, and was allow^ed to resign his
claims and exchange the Empire for the bishopric
of Salona.
Julius Nepos did not long survive his triumph, a.d. 475.
The barbarian soldiery at Bome broke out into
insurrection and under their leader Orestes marched
upon Bavenna. The trembling Emperor did not
await their approach, but shamefully abdicating
his authority fled to the security of his Dalmatian
principality. Here he lived for some five years
' in a very ambiguous state between an Emperor
and an exile,' until he was murdered at Salona in Murder
of Julius
480 by his former rival Glycerins, who according Nepos.
to one account was rewarded for his crime by
translation to the Archbishopric of Milan. There
seems, however, to be some doubt about the
identity of the ex-Emperor and the Archbishop ^
The Patrician Orestes, a Pannonian by birth,
declined the Empire for himself, and conferred it
on his son Augustulus in whom the line of
^ Vid. Gibbon, ch. xxxvi.
lo History of Dalmatia. [Ch. t.
End of Emperors of the western part of the Roman world
Empire, was extinguished by the victory of Odoacer.
^ jj 8 1 After the murder of Juhus Nepos Dalmatia had
Gothic remained for a year under the rule of Odiva one
kingdom of ^
Dalmatia. of liis murdorors, but in 481 Odoacer attacked
him and put him to death, and added Dalmatia to
A.D. 493. the kingdom of Italy, with which it passed a few
years later to Theodoric.
SECOND PERIOD.
Dalmatia under the Byzantine Umpire, a.d. ^'^^-woi.
The province had already begun to feel the
effects of barbarian inroads and to sink into
poverty and desolation. Dalmatia and Pannonia
' no longer exhibited the rich prospect of populous
cities, well cultivated fields and convenient high-
ways ; the reign of barbarism and desolation was
restored,' and the Latin or provincial subjects of
Rome were displaced by hordes of Bulgarians
Gepidae Sarmatians and Slavonians.
A.D. 4S2. Of the latter race, and near the modern Sophia,
was born in 482 Justinian, who was destined to
recover Italy for the Empire by the genius and
valour of another Slav Belisarius, who according
to Procopius was born somewhere in Bosnia or
Herzegovina ^
Q.p^r]To be 6 BeXiaapios tK Tfpixavias, fj QpaKcou re Kal iWvpicop
HfTa^v Kf'irai. Procop. Vandal. Lib. i.e. 1 1, quoted byGibbon, ch. xli,
who declares himself unable to find any mention of a Thracian
Cu. I.] History of Dalmatia. 1 1
Dalmatla and Pannonia were taken from the a.d. 535.
Goths in 535; but while Theodatus the weak ^gco'^gj.ed
Gothic king was parleying with Justinian about gmp^ire.
the terms of his surrender, two Eoman generals
who had advanced into Dalmatia were defeated
and slain by Gothic troops. The feeble Theodatus
was inspired to fresh resistance ; Belisarius led an
army to the conquest of Rome, and in 539 Ravenna
fell, and Vitiges, whom the Goths had raised to
the throne in place of the unmanly Theodatus, was
taken prisoner and sent to Constantinople.
In the same year a dreadful inroad of Huns a.d. 539.
Bulgarians and Slavonians swept over the whole ^oad"'^'^
Balkan peninsula, and other visitations of the
same kind in succeeding years, marked with every
circumstance of cruelty and rapine, reduced those
provinces to the extremity of misery.
During the Second Gothic war after the re- Second
vival of the Gothic kingdom by Totila, Salona war.
was the port from which Belisarius sailed for
Italy. But he was ill-supported by his govern-
ment, and finally recalled. Home was retaken by
the Goths, who crossed the Adriatic and carried
the war into Dalmatia, where, however, they were
defeated, and Narses, the new commandfer- in-
chief, sailed from Salona to the re-conquest of
Germania in the civil or ecclesiastical lists of the iDrovinces and
cities. The name of Justinian is a Latin translation of TJpranda,
upright ; his father Istock and his mother Biglenzia were
classicized into Sebatius and Vigilantia. Belisarius is said to be
the Slavonic ' Velicar.' Vid. Gibbon, ch. xl ; also Introd. to
Evans's ' Through Bosnia,' &c.
12 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i.
A.D. 552. Italy and final overthrow of the Gothic king-
dom.
A.D. 554- Dalmatia formed part of the exarchate of E,a-
Dalmatia , . . i i i i 1
under the vcnna ; out it IS supposed that when the exarch
Longinus, who succeeded Narses, created the
Italian duchies of Home, Venice, and Naples, he
also created one of Dalmatia, subject like the
others to the supremacy of the exarch, but pos-
sessing a certain measure of administrative in-
dependence.
It was about this time that the Avars first
came on the scene, a race akin to the Huns, who
were driven forward from Central Asia by the
The Avars growiug power of the Turks. Justinian, dis-
sembling his indignation at the arrogant tone
assumed by their ambassadors, employed them
to attack the Bulgarians and Slavonians in Po-
land and Germany, whom they reduced to vassal-
A D. 559- age. But in the following year a Bulgarian and
Slavonian horde under Zabergan crossed the
frozen Danube, invaded Macedonia and Thrace,
and advanced to within twenty miles of Constan-
tinople, which was saved by the last victory of
Belisarius.
A.D. 566. On the accession of Justin another embassy of
the Avars approached him, but, daunted by his
firmness, returned to their chagan with a report
that induced him to turn his arms against the
Franks rather than against the Empire. Un-
successful against this new enemy, the Avars
found fresh employment for their arms in an
Ch. I.] Hisiory of Dalmatia. 13
alliance with Alboin King of the Lombards, with
whom they joined in the overthrow of the Ge- a.d. 566.
pidae, a tribe which since the invasion of Attila
had been settled in Transylvania and was at this
time in the pay of the Empire. The Lombards
advanced to the conquest of Italy by way of
Friuli and Aquileja, leaving the territory of the
Gepidae to be occupied by the Avars.
The Avars, thus relieved by the departure of a.d. 570.
the Lombards and the ruin of the Gepidae, rapidly
extended their conquests from the Alps to the
Euxine, threatened Constantinople, and overran
the provinces. But the Roman provincials were
not the only sufferers by the cruelties of the
Avars; their vassal subjects were scarcely less op-
pressed. The Slavonians were not only governed
tyrannically at home, but in battle they were
exposed to the first assault, 'and the swords
of the enemy were blunted before they en-
countered the native valour of the Avars \' The a.d. 624.
Slavonians resolved to attempt their freedom ; their the siavs
Bohemian brethren seconded their resolution ; Avars. ^
Samo, a Frank, put himself at the head of their
insurrection ; the Avars were defeated, and the
Slavonians once more became a free people.
Heraclius at once offered them his support, a.d. 634.
and invited the tribe of the Xpoo^drot, Chorvati settles the
or Chorvates, Croats from Southern Poland and dalmatia
Gallicia, to drive the Avars out of Illyria and ^^'
occupy;J:hat province as vassals of the Empire.
' Gibbon, ch. xlvi.
14 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i.
They accepted the invitation, and, advancing into
Dahnatia, succeeded after a war of about five
years in reducing the Avars to subjection. In
the struggle that desolated the province the old
Roman towns of the sea-coast did not escape.
Driven from the country by the constant irruptions
of one barbarian horde after another the old pro-
A. D. 639. vincials of the Empire had been collected within
t?on*or' ^^ walls of the cities ; and most, if not all, of
Eoman those uow fell boforo the separate or united forces
towns in i:
Dalmatia q£ ^q Slavs or Avars, who were contending;
I ly Avars ' ^
and Slavs, foj^ \)^q^ mastcry of Dalmatian Salona was taken
after scarcely any defence and entirely destroyed,
the wretched inhabitants flying to the islands,
where they lived in huts and wigwams, enduring
every privation, and reduced to extremities by
scarcity of water. Scardona, Narona, and most
probably Jadera (Zara) shared the fate of Salona,
as well as Epidaurus, the oldest Greek colony in
Illyria, whose site is now occupied by the modern
Hagusa Yecchia. About the same time the Serbs,
or Servians, another Slavonic tribe, obtained leave
from Heraclius to settle to the east of the Croats
and in Southern Dalmatia, and the whole province
^ Salona and Epidaurus are said to have been destroyed by
Avars, but the eai'ly writers are very careless of ethnological
distinctions. Constantine Porphyrogenitus says Epidaurus was
destroyed 7ra/ja rcoj/ 2KXd/3coi/, but in another place he calls the
Avars Slavs, and Attila ^acnXevs twv 'K^apuv. Thomas Archidia-
conus says that the destroyers of Salona were called indifferently
Goths or Slavs, and were the same as the Croatiaus. Most
probably the invading hordes were composed of Goths and
Slavs as well as Avars.
On. I.] History of Dahnatia. 1 5
became thus peopled by Slavonians, the Croats
occupying what we know as Hungarian and
Turkish Croatia, and Northern Dahnatia as far
as the River Cettina which falls into the sea at
Almissa, while the Serbs occupied nearly the
whole of modern Servia Bosnia Herzegovina and
Montenegro, with the northern part of Albania,
and the coast from the Cettina to Durazzo.
The old Latin, or Roman, population, however Recovery
sadly it was crushed and weakened by this irrup- Roman
tion, did not disappear, nor did it lose its identity paUtiea.
and become merged in the ranks of the con-
querors. When the first shock was over, the
Romans either returned to their old towns or
founded new ones, where they managed to live
in a state between independence and vassalage
till they became strong enough in time to take
care of themselves. Zara soon rose again from
its ruin, the fugitives from Epidaurus settled on
an isolated rock not far from their ancient home
and founded the city of Ragusa, and the unhappy
Salonitans, not daring to return as yet to the
ruins of their old capital, crept back to the main-
land in reduced numbers, and found a refuge
within the impregnable walls of the deserted
villa of Diocletian, which has grown into the
modem Spalato. The fate of Trail on the main-
land and of the island towns of Arbe Veglia
and Ossero in the Quarnero during this general
catastrophe is obscure, but we find them in the
tenth century still peopled by Roman citizens and
1 6 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. I.
living under their old Roman institutions ; and if
they fell at first under the onslaught of the im-
migrant Slavs, they at all events recovered them-
selves like Zara and escaped being Slavonized
like the rest of the province. It is, however,
possible that their insular position saved them
from injury by a people who had no maritime
resources. These seven towns were the sole sur-
vivors of the ancient Roman civilization in Dal-
matia. A few old Roman cities like Aenona,
Corinium and Scardona were inhabited by the
conquering Slavs, but for the most part the
ancient sites were abandoned and the buildings
either destroyed or allowed to fall into ruin.
The islands of Northern Dalmatia, except those
above named, were uninhabited and their towns
deserted even as late as the tenth century. But
the larger islands of Southern Dalmatia — Lesina,
Curzola, Meleda — were colonized by the Serbs of
the Narenta, and in time Croatian immigrants oc-
cupied the rural districts of those in the northern
sea, for the Slavs of the sea-coast soon adapted
themselves to their maritime position and became
as formidable by water as they had been by land\
^ Constantine Porphyrogenitus de administrando Imperio,
ch. xxix-xxxi. His account was written in the j'ear 949, as he
tells us in ch. xxix : Ot Se \onTOi 'Pcoixavoi els TO. Tijs TrapoKias
KucTTpa bteawBrjcrav, Koi fJ.tXP'- '''"^ ^^^ KpaTovcn.v avrd' arivd elai rdSf
KaiTTpa, TO Paovcriv, to ' AaTraXadov, to Terpayyovpiv, to. AiciScopa, 17
Ap^r], r] BeVXa, Koi Ta ' 0\lrapa' wv Tivav Ka\ oiKrjTopes p-^XP'- ''""'^ '^^^ °'
Pco/zafoi KciXovvToi. p. I 28, ed. Bonn. Ta Se \onra KacTTpa to. ovra
(IS TTjv ^Tjpav Tov 6epaTos koX KpaTrjOivTa Trapa tcov flpripfvwv S/cXa^wj/
aoiKrjTa Km fp'jpa la-Tavrai, pr]8fp6i; kutoikovvtos iv avrols. ibid. p. 140.
Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 17
The communal family organization of the Slavs Organiza-
was not favourable to the formation of a compact siavs.
and formidable nation. Each tribe or village ex-
isted as a separate republic, and in the absence
of any tendency to cohere and assert their general
and national independence, they settled down
readily as vassals or provincials of the Empire.
Both Serbs and Croats acknowledged the do-
minion of the Byzantine Court a.nd at first sub-
mitted to a Praetor from Constantinople, who
collected tribute from them and sent it to the
capital ; and it was not till the ninth or tenth
century, when the decline of the Empire loosened
its hold on the distant provinces, that the Dal-
matian Slavs shook oif the yoke which had long
ceased to be more than nominal.
This he to some extent contradicts afterwards, v. infra. Of the
islands except Be/cXa (Veglia),"Ap/3?7, "O^apa (Ossero) and Aovn^pi-
KciTOV (Vergada), the rest elalv aoiKrjTa, e'xovTa fprjfjLoKaa-rpa hv to,
dvofxara elaiv ovra, Karavrpe^evo) ( ?), Ht^u;^ (Sale), 2eX/3a>
(Selve), SxepSd (Scherda), 'AXwjjtt (Nun), ^KipbaKia-aa (Pago),
IlvpoTLpa ( 1), MeXfTa (MelAda), 'Ea-Tiovvi]^ (Sestrum), /cat
erepa irdfinoWa Siv ra ovo/xaTa ov voovvrni, ibid. p. 140. These are
all in the Northern waters. Of the Southern islands he says
the Serbs of Pagania (i. e. the valley of the Narenta) Kparova-i
Koi ravras ras vrjaov^. Nrjo-o? peydiXr] 17 KovpKpa tJtoi. to KiKep (Curzola),
fv fi icTTi Ka\ KUdTpov. N^cToy erepa peyciXr; to. Me'Xera (^Nleleda), rjroL
TO MoKo^faTQi. NJja'os' irt'pa peyaKrj to <^dpa (Lesina), I'^cros irepa
HeyaXr} 6 BpaT^ris (Brazza), ibid. p. 163, 4. LagOSta, to Aaaro^op, and
the islands Xoapa and "irjs, though near the Pagani, did not belong
to them, ibid. p. 164. He mentions the following towns as in-
habited by the ^anrtcrnevoi Xpco^aroi : NoVa (Nona), BeXoypaSou
(Belgrad or Zara Vecchia), BeXiV^etv (Belina'?), 2/copSoi/a (Scardona),
XXejSeVa (Chlcbna), StoXttoi/ (Stulba), Tenji/ (Kiiin), K6pi (Karin),
KXa^wfca (Klapaz ?), ibid, p, 151.
VOL. I. C
1 8 History of Dahnatia. [Ch.i.
It is more difficult to say what became of the
ancient Dahnatian and Liburnian populations of
the province. They probably shared to some
extent the fortunes of the Roman colonists, with
whom they had doubtless become a good deal
intermingled, and it is supposed that their de-
scendants may be found in the cities of the coast
and on the islands. Lucio sees in the Morlacchi,
who retired from the hill country into the plains
as the Turks advanced towards the sea-coast in
the sixteenth century, and who now form the
peasantry of the northern part of continental
Dalmatia, the descendants of the old Roman
provincials who fled to the mountains and took
to a pastoral life when the Slavs occupied the
plains \ Of the provincials themselves, many
were already Slavs by descent and ready to
be merged in the ranks of their conquerors,
for a gradual infiltration of a Slavonic element
had been going on among the population of the
Balkan peninsula long before the irruption of the
seventh century and the settlement of the Croats
and Serbs by Heraclius. It is only in this way
that the population can have become so tho-
roughly Slavonized, for it is impossible to suppose
that the whole district was entirely repeopled at
the time of the Slavonic conquest.
A.D. 752. Such was the condition of Dalmatia when Ra-
End of the
exarchate, vouna fell bofore the Lombards, the exarchate
^ De Regno Dalm. et Croat, lib. vi. c. v. de Ylaliis. ; vicl.
also note, page 149 infra.
Cu. I.] History of Dalniatia. 19
wBaS extinguished, and the Imperial prefects of Byzantine
. , , , , . dukea of
the Adriatic removed themselves and their fleet Daimatia.
to Zara, which became the capital of the province
and the seat of the dukes of Daimatia. Side
by side with their somewhat shadowy authority
was the native organization of the Slavs, who
were grouped into districts called zupys, each
with a Zupan at its head. Over these were grand
Zupans, or presidents of the federation, and now
and then we read of a Ban, or personage of still
more exalted authority. All these ' archons '
acknowledged and condescended to accept digni-
ties and titles from the Empire, and, in name at all
events, professed obedience to the representative
of the Emperor. Side by side again with these
organizations were the old Roman municipalities
of the maritime towns, speaking the old Roman
tongue, governed by the old Roman law, owning
allegiance to none but the Roman Emperor and
the Prior who represented him in each commu-
nity, and looking to Constantinople for protection
in their ancient municipal liberties against the
Slavs, whose rule began beyond the narrow limits
of the territory which each city claimed as its own.
This was the beginning of that dual element in Distinction
1 • 1 between
Dalmatian history which must be thoroughly ap- Latin and
rt 1 • PI 1 Slavonic
preciated before the after history of the country caima-
can be understood, which has continued with
comparatively little difference to our own days,
and which is at this moment the key to the
c 2
20 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. I.
proper intelligence of Dalmatian politics and the
pivot on which they turn.
Conversion If Christianity had not made material proorress
of the oi 1 p • • T-w 1
Slavs to among the Slavs before their descent into Dal-
Christi- . •■ . • i i i • p
anity about matia *, tlicir contact with the population oi a
province that dated its Christianity from apo-
stolic times, and their residence under the sove-
reignty of a Christian Empire, resulted in the
speedy conversion of the greater part of them
from paganism. Before 640 it is supposed that
most of the Slavs had accepted Christianity,
except the Serbs of Southern Dalmatia, in the
district of the Narenta, who clung for a much
longer time to their ancient faith. In the tenth
century their country was known as Pagania,
and is described under that name by Constantine
Porphyrogenitus ^. On the deserted site of Ro-
man Narona the Slavonic conquerors had raised
* If Thomas Arcliid. ch. vii. may be trusted the conquerors
of Salona ' quamvis pravi essent et feroces, tamen Christian!
erant sed rudes valde. Ariana etiam erant tabe infecti.' This
would have been true of the Goths among them at all events.
The ' Historia Salonitanorum Pontificum atque Spalatensium
Thomae Archidiaconi Spalatensis ' will be frequently quoted.
Thomas was born in 1200 and died in 1268, and his narrative
of the events of his own time is of the greatest value. For his
own personal history v. inf. chapter xi.
Ot hi Tlayavoi, ol Koi rfj 'Pcofxaioiv biakeKTco 'Apevrai/ui koKovikuoi,
fis 8v(T^uTovs TOTTovs Kot KprjiJLpaBfis KUTiKei(f)drj(rav dj3aTTTicrT0i' Kai yap
Uayavoi Kara Trjv Tcov ^kXc'i^cov yXdcrauv a^aTTTiiTTOi €pfj.T]vevoPTai,
MfTu Se toOto Kul avToi dnoaTflXavrts els top doiSipou iSacrtXea f^;]Tr)-
aavTo ^aTTTKrdrjvai koi airoi' Koi aTroorei'Xos ifiaiTTiaf kol avrovs.
Const. Porphyr. de adm. Imp. ch. xxix.
Bai<il I. the Macedonian reigned from 867 till 886. Farlati
gives 872 as the date of the conversion of the Narentiues.
Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 21
a temple to their national god Viddo, whose name
survives in the modern villag-e of Vido, and when
in the reign of Basil the Macedonian the Naren-
tines w^ere baptized into the new faith, Viddo
himself shared in their conversion and became the
S. Vito, the uneasy Saint Vitus, of the new
mythology. As lately, however, as the begin-
ning of the nineteenth century, in a visitation
that was made of the churches of this district,
ancient idols were found still preserved and still
receiving the veneration of the people ^ I presume
like S. Vito, under names in Christian hagiology
most nearly corresponding to their Pagan titles.
After Charlemagne had overthrow^n the king- A.n. 806.
dom of the Lombards he extended his conquest con^ier^d
without difficulty over Istria, Liburnia, and Dal- lemagne"
matia, and the dominion of 6 /xe'-ya? Ka'poi'Xo? was
admitted, not only by the Slavonic population,
but by the Latins, or as they began to call them-
selves by distinction, Dalmatians, of the maritime
cities, who are even said to have voluntarily
thrown themselves on the protection of the new
Emperor of the West to escape the tyranny of
Nicephorus the reigning Emperor of the East.
Whether their surrender was voluntary, or whether
it is an invention of the vanity of the Dalmatians
and they were conquered by force, it is certain
that the cities of the coast were for the moment
' Yid. Schatzmayer, La Dalmazia. Trieste, 1877.
2 2 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i.
actually detached from the Eastern Empire and
attached to that of the West ^ Nicephorus did
not submit tamely, but sent a fleet into Dalma-
tian waters, which, however, eftected nothing ;
and had the dispute come to the arbitration of
arms the Byzantines would perhaps have made
but a poor defence against the destroyer of the
Eestora- Avars. It was not, however, the policy of
maritime Charlemagne to break up the Empire of Eastern
Eastern Romc, and the maritime cities and islands which
^^^^^^' seem to have been overawed into submission to
Nicephorus by a fresh naval demonstration in 809
were allowed to remain subject to the Eastern
Empire, while Istria and Croatia remained part
of the new Empire of the West ^. These terms
were embodied in a treaty, and the biographer of
Charlemagne is careful to convey the impression
that the concession to his Eastern brother was
the effect, not of compulsion, but of generosity ^.
^ Annales Regum Francorum, dcccvi : ' Statim post Natalem
clomini venerunt Wilharius [Obelerio) et Beatus Duces Venetiae
nee non et Paulus dux Jaderae atque Donatus ejusdem civitatis
ej)iscopus legati Dalmatarum ad praesentiam imperatoris cum
magnis donis ; et facta est ibi ordiuatio ab impei'atore de ducibus
et populis tarn Venetiae quam Dalmatiae.'
' ' De Dalmatia autem sicuti eam partem, quam Croati cum
Liburnia occupaverant, simul cum reliqua Croatia Carolum
subegisse censendum est, ita ilia exceptio Civitatum marinarum
de civitatibus continentis Dalmatiae, scilicet ladra, Tragurio,
et Spalato Croatis conterminis quae cum insulis Dalmatiae
nomen retinebant intelligenda est.' Lucio, de Eegn. Dalm. lib.
I. XV, To these he afterwards adds Ragusa and Capodistria,
ibid. ch. xvi.
•■ 'Exceptis maritimis civitatibus, quas ob amicitiam et junctum
Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 23
The Frank dominion in Dahnatia, however, was End of
a mere episode in its history, and lasted too short dominion.
a time to make any lasting impression. The
truth seems to have been that the Byzantines,
as masters of the sea, were able to retain their
hold on the maritime towns, and that the Franks,
being stronger by land, imposed their rule, though
perhaps not very firmly, on the Slavs of the rest
of Dalmatia, and of Istria and Croatia. This
yoke was easily shaken off by the Croatian and
Dalmatian Slavs after the death of Charlemagne,
and the dukes of Croatia, being practically in- indepen-
dependent of both Empires, rapidly advanced Croatia,
their authority to a position that wanted nothing
of royalty but the name. Even the maritime
cities were obliged to yield them a qualified sub-
jection. The cities were too weak to resist their
Slavonic neighbours except with the aid of the
Byzantine Empire, and as the Emj)ire found it
daily more and more difiicult to extend its pro-
tection over dejDendencies at such a distance,
Basil the Macedonian advised them to purchase
immunity by an annual tribute to the barbarians,
reserving a nominal sum for the Empire as an
acknowledgment of their continued fidelity ^
cum eo foedus Constantiiiopolitano Imperatori habere permisit.'
Egiuhart, Yita Carol. ^lagn.
^ Const. Porpliyr. de adm. Imp. ch. xxx. p. 147, ed. Bonn. :
6 vtZv aoiSifios (Kelvos (BacriXd's BacriXeios TTpo(Tp(\l/'aTo TruvTa ra Stoo^ei/a
Tu> arpai-qyo} bL^oadai nap avTOiV Tols ^KXdjSois kcu (IprjviKuis C^v fxer
avTa>v, Koi {ipa)(y Ti biboadai tm (TTparrj-ya lua fxovov SeiKWTai t) npos tovs
^acrtXfty tcov' Po) p.aiu>v koI wpui tov (jTpaTrjyov avrdv iiiTOTayrj /caiSouXwcrtf.
The Na-
rentines.
24 History of Dalmaiia. [Ch. I.
The homage which the dukes of Croatia still
j^rofessed to yield to the Empire was only ren-
dered occasionally and was little more than
nominal, till finally it was dropj)ed entirely, and
in the eleventh century the duchy became the
Kingdom of Croatia and Dalmatia.
The intricate channels among the Dalmatian
islands, and the secret harbours and inland seas
that indent the coast, have always disposed the
people to piracy in barbarous times, and the Slavs
had no sooner established themselves on the sea-
board and taken to maritime pursuits than they
did as their predecessors had done in the days
of Queen Teuta. The still Pagan Narentines
were powerful enough to impede the commerce
of the Adriatic and harass the cities of the Dal-
matian coast, and the Venetians were preparing
an armament to check their piracies, when a more
Saracen formidable enemy appeared on the scene. The
piracies. , .
A.D. 829. Saracens from Sicily entered the Adriatic, cap-
tured Bari on the Apulian shore, ravaged Cattaro
Kosa and Budua on the Dalmatian side, and laid
siege to Ragusa, which they invested for fifteen
months. A fleet under the Doge Partecipazio
was dispatched to co-operate with that of the
Emperor Theophilus, but the cowardice of the
Greeks involved the Venetians in a severe defeat
off Taranto or Crotona. The siege of Bagusa was
raised by the Emperor Basil I, the Macedonian,
who sent a fleet of one hundred sail, and the
Saracens retired to Bari. 'Their imi:)artial de-
Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 25
predations provoked the resentment and con-
ciliated the union of the two Emperors. An
oftensive aUiance was concluded between Basil
the Macedonian, the first of his race, and Lewis
the great - grandson of Charlemagne ^' Lewis
furnished the land forces, and Basil the naval
contingent. At his summons the Croats and
Serbs and the Latins of the maritime cities, all of
whom still formed nominally a part of his Em-
pire, flocked to the rendezvous at Ragusa, whence
they were transported in Bagusan vessels to
Bari -. The siege lasted four years and was Siege of
conducted by Lewis in person, and the fall of 867-871.
the Saracen citadel and the subsequent death of
Lewis were followed by the establishment of the
Byzantine theme of Apulia governed by a Cata-
pan, with Bari for his capital, which lasted till
subverted by the Norman conquest in 1040-
1043.
Of all the Dalmatians the Narentines alone
had not been invited to join in the campaign
against the Saracens, and they profited by the
absence and occupation of the Venetian fleet at
Bari, to strengthen their forces and prosecute
their piracies. A fleet which the Venetians sent Narentine
against them under the Doge Pietro Candiano Puntamtca.
was utterly defeated ofi" Puntamica near Zara,
and the Doge was killed. His body was found
after the battle by the Croatians who seem to
^ Gibbon, ch. Ivi.
^ Const. Porphyr. cli. xxix. p. 88, cd. Bonn.
2 6 History of Dahnatia. [Ch. I.
have had at that time no sympathy with the
Narentines, and was sent to Grade and buried in
the atrium of the cathedral^.
struggle The time had come when the question of the
between r» i * i • • i i
Venice and future supremacy of the Adriatic seemed evenly
the Naren- . i i en
tines for balanced between the Venetians and the olavs
in the of Soutliem Dalmatia. Venice was still in her
youth, and only beginning to be formidable, and
the Narentines with their allies and dependencies
were no unworthy antagonists in point of strength.
They occupied the valley of the Narenta, the
sea-coast from that river to the Cettina at
Almissa, with the towns of Makarska, BeruUa,
Ostrog, and Labinetza on the shore, other
places in the interior, and the large islands of
Curzola, Meleda, Lesina, and Brazza^. Envy
and fear of the growing naval strength of Venice
procured them the favour of the neighbouring
powers ; their attacks on Venetian commerce were
secretly or openly supported by the dukes of
Croatia and by the Ragusans, some of whom even
took service with the Narentine prince Muiis, and
they were regarded not unfavourably even by the
Byzantine Empire.
In estimating the character of the Narentine
pretensions it must be remembered that we have
' ' Croatos ergo tunc temppris ab iufestatione maris se absti-
nentes cum Venetis et Dalmatis Concordes navigasse, et sequuta
inter Venetos et Narentanos i^rope suum promoutorium pugna
navali, amici occisi Ducis cadaver derelictum inventum Gradum
ad sepeliendum tulisse dicendum est.' Luc. de Eegn. ii. p. 65.
^ Const. Porphyr.de adm.Imp. ch.xxx-xxxvi. v. sup. p. 1 7, note.
Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 27
only the one-sided account of the Venetian his-
torians, who represent them as simple corsairs
le\"ying black mail on the commerce of the
Adriatic, and harassing the maritime towns of
Dalmatia. It seems likely that they were not
merely sea-robbers but had developed a con-
siderable legitimate commerce with Italy, whither
we hear that their merchants used to go to
transact business. The narrative of a Narentine
historian might have given a difPerent aspect to
the struggle, and shown it to have been not a
mere crushing of a nest of pirates as the Venetian
historians describe it, but rather a contest for
supremacy between two young and growing naval
powers, both of whom aspired to the mastery of
the sea.
At first the Narentines had decidedly the best Pietro
Orseolo II,
of it ; for a hundred and fifty years the Venetians Doge, a.d.
had been compelled to pay them tribute for
liberty to navigate the Adriatic ; and it was not
till the time of their great Doge Pietro Orseolo II
that they felt themselves strong enough to refuse
it themselves, and to forbid its payment by others.
The cities of Dalmatia, afflicted by the constant
attacks of both Croatians and Narentmes, eagerly
welcomed the prospect of a deliverer, and offered
their allegiance to the Doge and his successors if
he would relieve them from the oppression of the
Slavs. As the Croatian dukes or kings had
originally received their authority from the
Eastern Empire permission was sought from the
A.D. 99S.
28 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. I.
Emperors Basil II. and Constantine IX. before the
Eepublic acceded to the request of the suppliants,
Conquest and assumed the dominion of Dalmatian Per-
rentines. missiou was granted, and in the eighth year of
his dukedom, Pietro Orseolo set sail from Venice
with a formidable fleet. At Grado he was met
by the Patriarch Yitale at the head of the people
and clergy ; at Parenzo, at the bishop's request,
he visited the Euphrasian basilica, entering the
city surrounded with a large military force ; at
S. Andrea, an island near Pola, he received the
homage of the bishop and citizens of that place :
sailing thence to Ossero he was welcomed not
only by the citizens, but by the people from the
neighbouring towns ' hotli Roman and Slavonic'
who swore allegiance to him, and at the feast
of Pentecost, which occurred during his stay, cele-
brated him in the public 'lauds-.' At Zara he
^ ' Qua de causa Veneti ab illis evocati, cum permiss?ioue
Basilii et Constantini Imperatorum Constantinopol. a quibus
reges illi sceptrum antiquitus recognoverant, dominium Dal-
matiae primitus acceiieruut.' Dandolo, lib. ix. c. i. pars 15.
^ Lucio devotes a chapter (lib. ii. ch. vi. de Laudibus) to an
account of the ' Lauds,' sung in Dahuatian churches down even
to his day. They wei-e unknown except in the old Roman or
'Dalmatian' cities. ' Hae autem laudes nunc caumitur in histan-
tum civitatibus quae olim Eomanorum vel Dalmatarum nomen
retinuere, ut dictum est, quae Imperiales etiam dictae fuere ad
diffcrentiam Croaticarum quae Regales, suntque Ragusium,
Spalatum, Tragurium, ladra, Arbum, Viglia. Sola Absarus ex
Dalmaticis iis caret, quae cum pene deserta sit civibus et
magistratibus nunc Chersum habitantibus ob id forsan omissae
fuere. Curzolae et Phari uti Narentanorum, Sibenici et Nonae
uti Croatorum neque olim cantatas ulla memoria reperitur neque
Ch. I.] History of Dalvmtia. 29
was met by the prior, or representative of the a.d. 998.
Emperor, with the bishop of the city, and also by
the priors and bishops of VegHa and Arbe, who
all swore allegiance on the gospels and engaged
that on festivals the name of the Doge should be
celebrated in the public lauds after that of the
Byzantine Emperor. An ambassador from the
king of Croatia was received coldly, and his
overtures were rejected ; the resources of the
Narentines were carefully ascertained, and mea-
sures were taken at once to put them to the
proof. A squadron of ten ships was sent to
intercept forty Narentine nobles on their way
home from Apulia, where they had been on affairs
of business, who were captured at the island of
Chaza, between Issa and Lagosta, and carried to
Trail. The Doge was already moving southwards
towards the same place, receiving on his way
the submission of Belgrade, and the island Leni-
grad which Lucio identifies either with Zuri or
Morter. At Trail he found his victorious vanguard
with then- prisoners, and received the homage of
the bishop and people, and also that of Surigna
the brother and unsuccessful rival of Mucimir
king or duke of Croatia, to whose son the Doge
gave his daughter Hicela in marriage. By this
alliance Lucio supposes the Doge ratified a treaty
with the Croatians which bound them to abstain
from molesting the Dalmatians, and detached
nunc canuntur.' Nor at Cattaro which for some time was sub-
ject to Servia. They were sung also at Capodistria.
30 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. I.
them from the Narentmes\ The Narentines thus
left alone face to face with a superior force were
glad enough to come to terms. The Doge had
advanced to Spalato, and his fleet augmented
by contingents from his new Dalmatian subjects
was far more than a match for his opponents.
Submis- Six of the Narentine captives were retained as
Karen- hostages, and the rest were restored to liberty,
and the Narentine prince in return bound himself
tines.
Venetian
Dukedom ^q exact uo tolls in future on the commerce of the
of Dal-
matia. Adriatic, and not to molest any Venetian travellers.
The islanders of Curzola and Lagosta- alone offered
any resistance. The former were easily conquered,
but the latter, relying on their impregnable clifls
and walls, made a stubborn fight, and were with
difficulty overcome. As the Lagostans had been
the worst corsairs in those seas, their city was
destroyed. The Doge returned to the church of
S. Maximus, w^hich, with no doubt a convent
attached to it, was situated on an islet near
Curzola, and there received the bishop and clergy
of E-agusa who came to tender their submission,
after which he returned in triumph to Venice,
revisiting on his way the several Dalmatian cities,
and assuming with the general consent the title
of Duke of Dalmatia.
^ Luc. cle Eegn. lib. ii. ch. iv.
"^ Dandolo calls the island Ladestina, and it has sometimes
been mistaken for Lesina. Lucio, with more probability, identi-
fies it with Lagosta. Yet Constantine Porphyrog. says that
Lastobon (Lagosta) did not belong to the Narentines or Pagani.
Yid. suji. note, p. 17.
Ch. I.J History of Dalmatia. 31
Cresimir II, king of Croatia, who harassed Zara a.d. 1018.
and the maritime cities, was defeated by Doge
Ottone Orseolo, to whom afterwards the priors
and bishops of Vegha, Arbe, Albona, and Ossero
renewed their oaths of fidehty, agreeing to pay an
annual acknowledgment. That paid by the
island of Arbe was ten pounds of silk, an inter-
estinor fact in connection with the introduction of
silk into western Europe ^
Once more in this century the power of the a.d. 1019.
Byzantine Empire was revived in Dalmatia. Bylantine
Basil II, ' Bulgaroktonos,' the destroyer of the ^'^""'''=«'
Bulgarians, after crushing Samuel the successor
of their great Czar Simeon in 1014, is said to
have subdued all Bosnia, Bascia, and Dalmatia,
and to have established Governors, Protospathars
and generals throughout these provinces ^ ; and till
1076 the Croatian king held his crown as a
dependent of the Empire. The Venetians had
always nominally respected the sovereignty of the
Empire, and at this time were too much occupied
by mtestine disturbances to interfere, and the
title of Duke of Dalmatia seems to have been
dropped after the time of Orseolo till it was
resumed by Vitale Faliero in 1084. The history
' Luc. de Eegn. ii. ch. viii. See below, cliap. xxviii, on history
of Arbe.
^ Luc. ii-ix. quotes in confirmation of this several documents
in the archives of S. Grisogono at Zara, e. g. * 1036. Indictione
quarta die 13 Feb. Eomani imperii dignitatem Gubernante
Serenissimo Michaele, Gregorio Protospatario et Stratico
universae Dalmatiae.'
32 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. I.
of this time is, however, extremely obscure. In
1067 we find amicably attending the court of
Peter Cresimir king of Croatia and Dalmatia at
Nona an imperial officer with the title of Pro-
tospathar and Catipan of all Dalmatia, and the
name of the reigning Emperor is prefixed to
the royal acts\ Lucio conjectures that the
Empire being too weak to restrain the Croatians
by land, allowed their king to call himself King
of Dalmatia, while he, having no navy to match
that of the Empire, allowed the imperial rule
to linger on in the maritime cities subject to such
a tribute as they had paid with the consent of
Basil I.
AD. 1073. The Byzantine Empire was daily losing ground.
The Normans had robbed it of the theme of
Apulia, and founded in its place a new kingdom
of their own, and were preparing to cross the
Adriatic and follow up their victory on its Eastern
The Nor- side. Their fleets searched the Dalmatian coast,
mans iu ii'-i i- rv^i
Dalmatia. and molcstcd the Cities, but were driven on by
the Venetians, who were jealous of the inter-
ference of a new power in the Adriatic. From
the expression of Dandolo that the Venetians
^ ' A.D. 1067. Eegnante D. Constantino Duce magno Tmj)era-
tore, Prioratum vero ladrae retinente D. Leone Imperiali
Prothospatario et totius Dalmatiae Catipano . . . ego Cresimir,
qui alio nomine vocor Petrus Croatorum Eex Dalmatinorumque "
&c. Document cited by Luc. de Regn. lib. ii. c. viii.
Tliom. Archid. says of the Kings of Croatia at this time,
' recipiebant enim dignitatis insignia ab Imperatoribus Con-
stantinopolitanis et dicebantur eorum Eparchi sive Patritii,'
ch. xiii.
("11. 1.] History of Dahnatia. 33
exacted fresh oaths of allegiance from the Dal-
matians, together with a promise that they would
not invite the Normans into Dalmatian it appears
that the coming of the Normans was not a mere
raid, but had been solicited by some of the
cities. The whole incident is extremely obscure.
In the middle of this century occurred the Synod of
syiiod at Spalato, which prohibited the use of 1059.
the lUyrian liturgy, and prescribed the use of
only Greek or Latin in the church services. The
s}Tiod was attended by bishops from the whole of
Dalmatia and Croatia, but none even of the Slav
bishops protested except Gregory the bishop of
Nona. The Slav priests were struck with dismay,
their churches were shut and the services inter-
rupted. A delegacy to the Pope failed to obtain
relief, and the delegate of the Croatian appellants
was on his return degraded, beaten, branded, and
imprisoned for twelve years, while Cededa, a
Slavonic bishop ignorant of the Latin language,
whom the recusant party had intruded into the
see of Veglia, was ejected and excommunicated -.
The acts of this synod illustrate the religious Religious
(3iflrGr6Dccs
differences which accentuated those of race which between
divided the Latin from the Slav. Throughout the siavs.
middle ao^es the Latin cities were the strono-holds
of Roman orthodoxy, while the Slavonic kingdoms
of the interior were more or less inclined to the
^ Dandolo, lib. ix. c. viii.
"^ Thom. Archid. c. xvi; vid. infra, History of Spalato, chap, x,
and that of Veglia, chap. xxvi.
VOL. I. D
34 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i.
doctrines of the Patarenes or to those of the Greek
Church,
A.D. 10S7. On the death of Demetrius or Zuonimir the
Croatian last regular king, whose wife was sister to Ladis-
mg om. j^^^ -j-^ ^^ Hungary, the succession to the crown of
Croatia was disputed, and Ladislaus was invited
to contest it with Stephen II, who had been
elected by one part of the nobility. Ladislaus
Hungarian descended into Croatia with an army, but was
of Croatia, recalled by an invasion of Tartars before he could
establish himself firmly in his conquest ; and he
recrossed the mountains, leaving his nephew
Almus ^ as duke of Croatia to govern in his name.
The Hungarians do not seem at this first in-
cursion to have reached Dalmatia, but only to
have annexed Croatia^, a country then divided
by faction and easily conquered in detail.
Venetians \\^ [g j^q^ without sio;nificance that this was the
revive their ^
claims to moment when the Venetians revived their dor-
Dalmatia.
mant claim to Dalmatia. The Byzantine Emph-e
was at this time in the throes of its struggle with
^ It seems doubtful which brother of Ladislaus, Geiza or
Lampertus, was father to Almus. Otto Frising., Vita Hei'bordi,
lib. i, and de Gest. Frid. lib. vii, calls Almus brother to Coloman
who was son to Geiza, but he is corrected by his annotator (ed.
Pertz), who says Almus was son to Lampertus. Vid. Table of
Kings of Hungary, infra.
^ Thom, Archid. c. xvii : ' Ergo Vladislaus . . . transivit
Alpes et coepit impugnare munitiones et castra, multaque
proelia committere cum gentibus Croatiae, sed cum alter alteri
non ferret auxilium essentque divisi ab invicem facilem victo-
riam Rex potuit obtinere ; nee tamen usque ad maritimas
regiones pervcnit/ &c.
Ch. I] History of Dahnatia. 35
the Norman Robert Guiscard, and in the disast-
rous campaign of Durazzo the Venetian fleet had
rendered good service to the Emperor Alexius.
The Emperor was alarmed by the disposition the
Dalmatians had shown to appeal to the Normans,
alarmed also at the progTess of Hungary towards
the sea-coast, and irritated because Zuonimir the
last king had sought investiture from the Pope
and not from Constantinople \ To prevent Dal-
matia falling into the hands of either Hungarian
or Norman, Alexius seems to have resorted to the
expedient of conferring afresh on the Doge of
Venice the title of Duke of Dalmatia, which had
fallen into abeyance since the time of Pietro
Orseolo II. Accordingly we find Vitale Faliero^
assuming the title ' Dalmatiae Dux,' at the very
time when the Hungarians began to meditate the
conquest of that country ; and thus began the
struggle for the possession of Dalmatia which
with varying fortune raged between these two
powers for the next three hundred years, till
Hungary, broken by Turkish conquest, was com-
pelled to retu-e from the contest and leave Venice
mistress of the field.
' Luc. ii. X. p. 85.
^ Luc. de Regno, lilj. iii. c. ii. Vitale Faliero was Doge
from 1085 till 1096.
D 2
36 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i.
THIRD PERIOD.
Contest of Venice and Hungary for the possession of Dalmatia^
A.D. 1102-1420.
Condition XliG Condition of the country and the various
of Dal- ... .
matia at races that inhabited it at the opening of this new
this time. ...
chapter in its history may be gathered obscurely
I. The from various sources. The Croatians had srraduaUy
Croatians. ^ *'
become consohdated from a loose aggregate of
semi-independent zupaiiies into a nation and a
kingdom. Contact with and subjection to the
courts of the two Empires had taught them to
imitate the imperial offices and establishments of
Constantinople and Aquisgranum. The zupa^is
were latinized into counts, we find chamber-
lains palatines chaplains and judges in attend-
ance on the king in the various places where he
held his court, and Latin was the official language
in state documents, at least as far back as 838 ^.
There was no settled capital ; royal acts and
privileges are dated from Bihafi Knin Novigrad
Belgrad (Zara Vecchia), sometimes ' a nostro
cenaculo ' at Nona, frequently from Sebenico, and
often from some river or fountain or church in the
open country. Nona seems to have been the
principal seat of the court, and the bishop of that
place had all Croatia for his diocese. The bishop
of Knin was scarcely less favoured ; his see was
^ Lucio, lib. ii. c. ii. p. 6i, cites a privilege in Latin of Tirpi-
niirua Dux Croatorum in that year.
Ch. I.] History of Dahnatia. ^y
founded at the instance of the kings of Croatia, The
M'ho wished ' specialem habere pontificem,' and the
bisliop was the royal bishop and followed the
royal court, of which he was one of the magnates ^
All the Croatian bishops were subject to the
Metropolitan of Spalato, whose province extended
as far as the borders of Istria and the shores of
the Danube.
The Croatians remained, as to some extent
they still remain, lovers of the open country and
haters of towns, like our own Saxon forefathers.
Their towns were few and small, and the scattered
population was distiibuted in hamlets of a few
houses clustered round a humble church on the
shoi'e of some stream or beside some spring. A
glimpse of the condition of the people is given
by William of Tyre in his account of the march of
Raymond of Thoulouse on his way to the first ^.n. 1095-
crusade through Lombardy Aquileja Istria and
Dalmatia. He distinguishes the civilized Latin
inhabitants of the maritime cities from the Croa-
tians, who, he says, are a most ferocious people,
accustomed to robbery and murder, clad like
barbarians, living by their flocks and herds, and
little given to agriculture ^. ' The weather was
^ Tliom. Archid. c. xv. For extent of kingdom of Croatia vid.
his c. xiii.
* William of Tyre, HI), ii. c. 17: ' Exceptis paucis qui in oris
raaritimis liaLitant, qui ab aliis et moribus et lingua dissimiles
Latinorum luibent idioma, reliquis Sclavonico scrmone utentibus
et liabitu Barbarorum.' He names Zara Spalato Antivari
and I\;igusa as the four ' Metropoles.'
2^8 History of Dalmatid. [Ch. I.
a perpetual fog, the land was mountainous and
desolate, the natives were either fugitive or hos-
tile : loose in their religion and government, they
refused to furnish provisions and guides, murdered
the stragglers, and exercised day and night the
vigilance of the Count, who derived more security
from the punishment of some captive robbers than
from his interview with the prince of Scodra^'
2. state of Qj-^ ^^ coast and some of the islands were the
the Latins
of Dal- q1(J Boman or, as they beg^an to be called, Dahna-
matia. _ _ _ ' . . ,
tian as distinct from Croatian towns ^, subject in
name to the Empire of Eastern Rome, tributary in
fact to the kings of Croatia, but in other respects
independent, governing themselves by their own
laws, talking their old Latin tongue, which was
already in some phase of transition towards its
modern Italian form, and maintaining something
of the old Latin civilization in the midst of a
semi-barbarous people ; ' moribus et lingua dissi-
miles.' No charter of j)rivileges from a Croatian
king to a Dalmatian city is known, though there
are many granted to churches and convents
within the city walls ^ and it is probable that
^ Gibbon, Decline and Fall, chap. Iviii.
^ ' Croatos in Dalmatia maritima a Cetina fliunine usque ad
Istriam omnia occupasse praeter oppida maritima ladra, Tragu-
rium et Spalato quae cum Insulis Dalmatarum vel Romanorum
nomen retinuerunt, ut Porpli. tradit, et quamvis eosdem aliquas
etiam Insulas occupasse constat, tamen Croatos maris usuni
Dalmatis et Venetis invitis liabei'e non potuisse ex supradictis
apparet.' Luc. de regn. lib. ii. c. xiii. p. 89.
** Luc. ii. c. XV. p. 96.
Ch. I.] History of Dainiafia. 39
the king was satisfied with liis tribute and The Latins
exacted no further submission from the citizens, maiians.
They began to thrive commercially ; their con-
tingent to the fleet of Pietro Orseolo had con-
tributed in great measure to the downfall of the
Narentines, and some of the island towns were
quite able to protect themselves against the
attacks of their semi-barbarous neighbours. Arts
began to rise from the prostrate condition in
which the barlmrian conquests had left them, and
if the buildings that have come down to us from
the ages preceding the advent of the Hungarians
are rude and for the most part humble, still they
show the germs of future life ; and one among
them, the church of S. Donato at Zara, is con-
ceived on a scale and in a style that is not easily
to be matched among the contemporary works of
other countries.
The three Dalmatian towns on the mainland
within the kingdom of Croatia, Zara Trail and
Spalato, had each a narrow territory attached to
it, that of Zara bounded by the territories of the
Croatian cities of Nona and Belgrad, that of Trail
consisting only of the small plain to the north of
the city with the hillsides enclosing it, and that
of Spalato ceasing short of Salona and the pen-
insula or Vraniica or ' Piccola Venezia ^' TheA.n. 1195-
Romans of Ossero Arbe and Veglia, though the
rural districts of their islands were peopled by
Croats, were more completely masters of the
' Luc. (le legn. HI), ii. c. xiii. p. 89.
40 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. T.
soil, for the Croatian king had no maritime re-
sources and less power of interference with them
than with their brethren on the mainland.
3. state of ^j-^Q southern limit of the Croatian king^dom
bouthern o
Dalmatia. ^g^g ^^ rivcr Ccttiua which runs into the sea at
Almissa. Beyond this lay the Serbs, the southern
branch of the Slavonic family, among whom the
ancient Latin culture was kept alive in the cities
of Ragusa and Cattaro. Ragusa enjoyed a
dubious independence, being under the nominal
rule of the Eastern Empire which seldom inter-
fered, and since the expedition of Orseolo under
the more or less actively exercised influence of
Venice. Cattaro was more directly exposed to
Servian aggression, and when the Empire was no
longer in a condition to protect her in her ancient
allegiance, she placed herself voluntarily under
A.D. 1043. the protectorate of the Servian king, stipulating
however that she should be allowed still to govern
herself according to her ancient laws and customs.
The remaining islands of the Dalmatian archi-
pelago, Brazza Curzola Lesina Lagosta Meleda
and the rest, were either deserted, or had become
thoroughly Slavonized.
4 The Such was the condition of Dalmatia at the time
Hun-
garians when the Hungarians first made their appearance
descnbed. ^ -'■■'•
on the scene. Of these new-comers and their
degree of civilization we may form some notion
from the account given of them by a contem-
porary writer about half a century later \ Their
' Otto Frisiiigensis was a son of (Saint) Leopold, Manpis of
Ch. t.] History of Dalmatia. 41
low stature, dusky complexion, and sunken eyes The Hun-
. , garians.
spoke of then- Tartar descent, their manners were
fierce, and their speech to German ears bar-
barous. In summer-time they lived chiefly in
tents, in winter in huts of reeds, among which
were a few houses of wood, and a very few
buildings of stone. They rivalled the Greeks in
the leno-th of their deliberations and the caution
with which they approached any new enterprize
of importance. Their obedience to their king was
absolute ; and the nobles who came to attend the
court, each bringing with him his own seat, were
careful never to ofi:end the royal ears by express-
ing or even whispering anything in contradiction
to the royal will. So completely was the king's
authority recogiiised throughout the seventy
counties of the realm that at the word of the
meanest messenger from the royal court the
highest noble would be seized in the midst of
his own satellites, loaded with chains, and sub-
jected to the severest tortures. The whole popu-
lation was liable to military service, a few
husbandmen only being left to till the ground.
The king took the field encircled by the ' hospites '
Austria, and born about 1 1 1 1 or 1 1 1 4. He was made bishop of
Fri&inga in 1 137-8, and published his Gesta Friderici, &c. about
1 1 56-8. The monasteries near Freising had been ravaged by
Hungarians, so that Otto had some personal experience of them,
and he evidently did not love them ; ' ut jure fortuna culpanda,
vel potiua divlna patieniia adniiranda sit, quae, ne dicam
hominibus, sed talibus hominum raonstiis tarn delectabilem
exposuit terram.' Vid. Pertz, Mon. Germ. Hist. Scrijit. vol. xx.
42 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. t.
or princes of his court who formed his bodyguard,
and who imitated as well as they could the arms
and accoutrements of the neighbouring Germans,
while the rest of the soldiers were squalid in
person and sordid in their equipment ^.
Before this formidable and compacted nation
of warriors the disorganized Croats could make
little stand. Though Ladislaus was unable to
return to complete his conquest, Coloman, his
nephew and successor, was so far master of Croatia
that in 1097 we find him at the Croatian city of
Belgrad (Zara Vecchia), where he received his
bride Busita, the daughter of Roger the Norman
Count of Sicily. The simplicity of the times is
illustrated by the celebration of the nuptial festi-
vities in tents and huts of green boughs, there
being but scanty accommodation within the city^.
Coloman Jhc Croats rose once more in arms to recover
conquers
Dalmatia, their independence, but were finally crushed by a
fresh invasion of the Hungarians, and in 1102
Coloman was formally crowned at Belgrad king
of Dalmatia and Croatia. His ambition extended
to the conquest of the maritime towns which
were then subject to Venice, but the moment was
inopportinie for a rupture with that power. The
Venetian alliance was necessary to him in the
^ Otto Fiisingensip, De Gestis Friderici I, lib. i. in vol. xx. of
Pertz's collection. Thoni. Arcliid. ch. xxiv. tells a story curiously
illustrative of the extraordinary veneration of the Hungarians
for the royal person in the time of Enieric, 11 96-1 204.
^ Gaufridus Malaterra, lib 4. c. 25, in Luc, p. iii.
1102-5
Cii. I.] History of Dalmatia. 43
attack he meditated on the Normans of Apulia ;
the Doge was assured of his friendship, and the
neutraUty of the Venetians during his struggle
with the rebellious Croatians was secured by his
promise to respect the rights of the Republic
over the maritime towns. A joint armament of
Venetians and Hungarians sailed to invade
Apulia ; Brindisi and Monopoli were occupied,
and the Normans were compelled to engage no
longer to continue their incursions in the Adriatic \
In the year 1 105 however, when the Venetians Coioman
under their Doge Ordelafo Faliero were engaged the Dai-
in the Holy Land, and the Dalmatian cities were citie?.
reduced in strength by the contingents they had
furnished to the expedition, Coioman seized the
opportunity to complete his scheme of conquest.
Advancing into Dalmatia he laid siege to Zara,
the principal city of the province, and assaulted
it vigorously with a battering train. The Zaratini
were aided in their resistance by Giovanni Ursini
bishop of Trail, whose skill as an engineer gained
him the credit of having miraculously destroyed
the Hungarian engines, and to whose diplomacy
the Zaratini were indebted for the favourable
terms they succeeded in obtaining when further a.d. 1 104.
resistance became hopeless. From Zara Coioman
advanced to receive the submission of the other
Dalmatian cities ^. The Spalatini, according to
^ Dandolo, lib. ix. c. x. pars 1 1.
^ Thomas, c. xvii, says Coioman attacked Spalato first, then
Trail, and lastly Zara. Lucio points out that he is mis-
44 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i.
Thomas Archcliaconus, astonished at the appear-
ance of an enemy of miknown race, were disposed
to resist, but finding ' tliat the men ivere Christians
and that the king ivas disposed to deal liberally
tvith them' they surrendered on condition that
their ancient privileges should be confirmed ; and
Trail afterwards submitted on the same terms.
The tower of St a. Maria at Zara, which was built
by the orders of Coloman after his triumphal
entry, remains as a monument of his piety and of
his desire to ingratiate himself with his new
Privileges subjects. Their ancient privileges were confirmed,
of the IT' • • 1
'Daima- fresli chartors were granted, and their municipal
<ia»' cities. . • n , n , i x
liberties were, nominally at all events, secured to
them. The Dalmatian cities were to pay no
tribute, they were to choose their own count and
bishop whom the king would confirm, and to pre-
serve their own Roman law and appoint their
own judge ; dues on foreign imports were ap-
portioned between the king, the bishop, the count,
and the municipality; no Hungarian or foreigner
was to live within their walls against their will,
and any one disliking Hungarian rule was free to
depart with wife children servants and chattels \
Not always That thcsc chartors should not always have
respected.
been respected is natural, and Archidiaconus tells
us how the Hungarian archbishop Manasses
taken ; De regn. iii. iv. Dandolo also takes Coloman first to
Spalato.
' Vicl. Statute of Tiaii ; Luc. de regn. lib. iii. c. iv. p. 117;
also vi. c. ii.
Cm. I.] History of Dahiatia. 45
and the Hungarian garrison which Coloman had
estabHshed at Spalato — itself an infringement of
the privilege — tried to make themselves masters
of the city, and were defeated by the promptness
of the citizens and their count. But notwith- "^'aiue of
the privi-
standino; occasional infrin^rement here and else- leges.
where the charters remained as the foundation
of civil liberty, to w^iich appeal could always be
made, and which could always be put forward
when the political situation made the alliance of
the cities valuable to the sovereign and conces-
sions were more readily obtained.
The success of the Hungarians had been unop- Causes of
Hungarian
posed by the Venetians, who were at that time, success.
as has been already said, engaged in the first
Crusade, where the Doge Ordelafo Faliero was
present in person. The Venetians however ac- Recovery
cused Coloman of bad faith, and after his death matia by
in 1 1 1 4 the Doge Ordelafo Faliero invaded Dal- raiiero.
matia, and not only recovered the principal cities ' ' ^'
but took the Croatian towns of Belgrad Sebenico
Nona and Novigrad which had never been
Venetian before \ Arbe welcomed his arrival and
volunteered her submission, Zara was taken
except the castle, and Belgrad was occupied and
garrisoned. In the following year, with the aidA.o. 1116.
^ Luc. iii. c. V. p. 122. It is a significant fact that
before engaging in this expedition the Venetians appealed to
the Emperor Alexius, thus recognizing his nominal supremacy
in Dalmatia, which the Hungarians ignored ; their conquest
being in fact the final severance of the tie that bound that
province to Constantinople. Vid. Dandolo.
46 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. I.
of Alexius and the Emperor Henry Y, the Doge
renewed the contest, defeated the Hungarian Ban,
took the castle at Zara, captured and destroyed
the 'impregnable' stronghold of Sebenico, received
the submission of Spalato and Trail, and returned
A.D. 1 1 17. in triumph to Venice. In the following year how-
Ordeiafo Gvor ho was slaiu in battle against a fresh in-
vasion of Hungarians, and a truce was agreed to
for some years.
While the Doge Domenico Michieli was engaged
in the Holy Land and in hostilities with the
Byzantine Empire, no longer friendly to Venice
after the death of Alexius, Stephen II. recovered
A.D. 1 1 27. SjDalato and Trail ^; but on his return the Doge
tion of expelled the Hungarians from both cities, took
Domenico^ Bclgrad, and entered Zara in triumph, Belgrad,
^^ ^^ ^' where Coloman had been crowned, which had
been a favourite seat of the Croatians, and which
the Hungarians had endeavoured to make a rival
to Zara, had awakened the jealousy of the Vene-
tians, who took this oj^portunity of wreaking their
vengeance on it. Belgrad was utterly destroyed,
the seat of the bishopric was removed to Scardona,
Sebenico and many of the inhabitants settled at Sebenico,
city. which, increased in population and wealth, and
favoured by its natural advantages, began to grow
in importance, and by the charter of Stejihen III.
in 1 1 6 7 was placed on an equality with the
^ Trail had been sacked and nearly destroyed in 11 23 by
a Saracen fleet, and was in no condition to resist any as-
sailant.
C'H. I.] History of Dahnatia. 47
Dalmatian municipalities, and was thenceforth
reckoned among the 'Dalmatian' cities ^
During the succeeding reign of Bela II, ' the Hun-
blmd^,' the Hungarians made no attempt on Dal-fe^ver
matia, but under that of his son Geiza II, whoA!D.n4i;
conquered Bosnia and made it tributary to Hun-
gary, Spalato and Trali voluntarily gave themselves ^^^^ ^rau,
to the Hungai'ians and received from Geiza a
confirmation of their privileges, while Sebenico, as ^d- "67.
has been above mentioned, was raised by his son '
StejDhen III. to the rank of a privileged and
chartered town.
It was at this time that the see of Zara was a.d. 1145.
raised to metropolitan rank. Hitherto it had bishopric
been suffragan to the ancient see of Salona ovf^^^l^^^
Spalato, but Spalato was now Hungarian, and it
became of consequence to teach the Zaratini to
look to Venice as the seat of spiritual no less than
secular jurisdiction. In 1145 Lampridio, who
had been elected bishop of Zara by the influence
of the Venetian count Petrana, obtained the
pallium from Pope Anastasius, and the new archie-
piscopal see was subjected to the Venetian primate,
the Patriarch of Grado. The suffragan bishops
of the new metropolitan were those of Ossero
Veglia and Arbe, and an attempt was made to
include the new see which was at this time founded
^ Luc. iii. ch. viii. p. 127.
'^ Otto Fribing. Vita Herbordi, lib. i : 'Bela qui a patruo suo
Colomanno rege cum patre suo Alino duce diebus adulescentiae
luminibus privatum,' &c. Almus however was not bliuded by a
brother's hand; vid. note above, page 34.
48 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i.
at Lesina ^ But the archbishop of Spalato suc-
ceeded in maintaining his jurisdiction over that
island.
A.D. 1 1 71, 'j'j^Q yg^g^ designs of the Emperor Manuel, who
Invasion -x c> ^ • ^ r^ t'
of the dreamed of chasing the German Lmperor beyond
Manuel, the Alps, and uniting the Roman world once more
under a single sceptre, brought the Byzantines
aofain, and for the last time, into Dalmatia.
Milan was encouraged in her splendid resistance
to Frederick by Greek gold, which enabled her to
restore her demolished walls ; and Ancona was
laden with benefits in order to secure so convenient
an entrance into Italy. These favours to the
Anconitans, whom they regarded as rivals, and of
whose prosperity they were extremely jealous,
offended the Venetians^, who sent a fleet and
captured five galleys of Ancona. Beviving the
obsolete claims of the Empire over Dalmatia
Manuel sent a powerful fleet into the Adi^iatic,
which overawed the resistance of the Venetians
and received the submission of Spalato Trail and
His con- Bagrusa. Trail, still half in ruins from the Saracen
quests m ^
Dalmatia. assault and capture, was in no condition to resist
a siege and was speedily recovered by the Venetian
fleet. Spalato remained subject to the Empire
till the death of Manuel in 1 1 80. Bagusa,
^ Thom. Arcliid. c. xx.
^ ' Quod Anconitani Graecum imperium nimio diligerent
. . . Veneti speciali odio Anconam oderint.' Vid. Gibbon,
ch. Ivi. ' Hoc tempore Anconitani Eraanuelis obedientes im-
perio Venetos ut sibi aemulos coeperunt habere.' Dandolo,
ix. XV. 17.
Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 49
according to the Venetian historians, was recovered
by the Venetian fleet, and the imperial standards
of Manuel were thro\\Ti down to make w^ay for
the banner of the republic. The wonted oaths of
fidelity were exacted anew, a Venetian count was
appointed, and the archbishop was compelled to
accept the metroiDolitan of Grado as his spu^itual
superior \ But the Ragusan historians, jealous
of their free traditions, dispute the accuracy of
this account, as they do that of the submission to
Pietro Orseolo. * The Mar was terminated by an Peace
agreement inglorious to the Empire, insufficient Venice and
for the republic; and a complete vengeance of
these and of fresh injuries was reserved for the
succeeding generation 2.'
The security afforded them by the maritime Prosperity
supremacy of Venice in the Adriatic on the one Dalmatian
hand, and the overthrow of the Croatian kingdom
by the Hungarians on the other, had been of
service to the Dalmatian cities and enabled them
to develop their resources without impediment.
Zara in particular had been a gainer by these
revolutions ; she stood foremost in wealth and
population, she had emancipated herself from the
ecclesiastical control of Spalato, and her territory
had been increased since the destruction of Belgrad
by a grant from the Venetians of the islands for-
merly dependent on that city ■'.
^ Dandolo, 1. ix. c. xv. pars 24.
^ Gibbon, vii. cli. Ivi.
^ Thomas Archidiaconus describes the Zaratiiii as ' divitiis
VOL. I. E
50 History of Dabnatia. [Ch. i.
A.n. 1 171. In 1 171, in the time of Doge Vitale Michieli II,
ktZarT ^ sedition occurred at Zara, about which there are
quelled, several conflicting accounts. Lucio conjectures
that it was connected with the election of the
count, the privilege most jealously prized and
guarded by a Dalmatian city. The Venetian
count, Domenico Morosini, son of the preceding
Doge, was expelled, and the countship conferred
on Lampridio the archbishop, a native Zaratine.
The disturbance was easily quelled and Morosini
restored, but on the death of Lampridio fresh dis-
sensions arose about the subjection of the arch-
A.D. 1 178. bishopric to the patriarchate of Grado. The new
submit archbishop was forbidden by the citizens to
bishopric acknowledge the patriarchal authority, and an
archate'of appeal was made to Home ; but Alexander was
^^^ °' under obligations to Venice, and the appeal of the
Zaratini was rejected. ' It is ours to teach the
people, not to obey them,' said the Pontiff" in
language that has the true ecclesiastical ring ;
and the rebellious archbishop was enjoined to
submit, and punished by deprivation of the pallium
and of the right to consecrate his suff'ragans. The
A.D. 1 180- Zaratini however forbad their prelate to obey this
Fiistrevoit Sentence, threw oflP their allegiance to Venice, and
the kun- offered it to Bela III. of Hungary, who placed a
garrison within the walls and strengthened the
affluentes . . . superbia tumidi, potentia elati, de injuriis glori-
antes, de malitiis exultantes, deridebant inferiores, coutemne-
baut superiores, nullos sibi fore pares credebant.' This speaks
for the prosperity of the Zaratiui, and as to the rest it should
be remembered that Thomas was a Spalatine.
ganans.
Cn. I.] History of Dahnatia. 51
fortifications in anticipation of a Venetian attack. Revolt of
Spalato had already submitted to Hungary ; Trail cities. ^"^
and the islands of Brazza and Lesina successiv^ely
followed its example ; and the Venetians, crippled
by their recent war with Manuel, were at first
unable to take any serious steps to reassert their
authority. Trail was for a short time occupied by a.d. 1183.
the Doge Orio Mastropiero, but on his departure
the city returned again to the Hungarians. The
eastern half of the island of Pago, which had in
some manner passed from the possession of Nona
to that of Zara, was occupied and made the seat of
a Venetian count ; but an attempt on the city of
Zara failed ; the city was strong in its own resources
and supported by the Hungarian alliance, and the
Venetians were obliged to content themselves with
holding the islands and impeding the commerce
on which the prosperity of Zara depended.
But Zara was regarded by the Venetians as the
key to their maritime supremacy in the Adriatic,
and they never lost sight of the necessity of re-
covering it. An opportunity at last occurred in
the time of the Doge Enrico Dandolo. After the
death of Bela HI. in 1 196 the kingdom of Hungary
was torn by the struggle between his sons Emeric
and Andrew^, and Emeric after having success-
fully overcome the opposition to his government
was indisposed by illness for an active policy. At a.d. 1201.
this juncture the fourth Crusade was proclaimed crusaX^
by Innocent HI, and a deputation irom the levies
^ Thom. Arcliid. c. xxiv.
K 2
52 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i,
in France and Flanders, in which countries alone the
enterprise had been warmly undertaken, arrived
in Venice to arrange for the transport of the cru-
saders to the Holy Land by sea. The Venetians
listened to the exhortations of their blind and
aged Doge, who with the ardour of a hero urged
the conclusion of an agreement with the crusaders
and the participation of the republic in the holy
war. Venice was fixed as the rendezvous of the
allies in the following year, the republic undertook
to transport the entire force of 4500 knights and
20,000 foot, to provision them for nine months,
and to join the expedition with 50 galleys of their
own ; while in return the pilgrims were to pay
before their clejDarture 85,000 marks of silver, and
to engage that all conquests should be equally
divided between the confederates.
A.D. 1202. ^^ the appointed time everything was ready
Rendez- i n i p •
vousof except the 85,000 marks of the foreigners, of
at Venice, which 34,ooo worc still wanting ; and while the
French dejjlored the apparent fruitlessness of the
toil and exjDense they had already incurred, the
Venetians had to fear the loss of their extensive
preparations and the spoiling of the provisions they
Reduction had storcd up. In this conjuncture the policy
proposed, of the Dogo proposcd, and the necessities of the
French accepted, as a way out of the difficulty, that
the united forces should recover for the Venetians
their revolted city of Zara, and that the services
of the French in this enterprise should be taken
as an equivalent to the deficient 34,000 marks.
Ch I.] History of Dalnialia. 53
On Oct. 2, 1202, the allies set sail from Venice, a.d. 1202.
A detachment touched at Trieste and alarmed that zarabjfthe
city into an agreement to pay tribute to the C'""^*'^®"-
republic, and the whole force then proceeded to
Zara, which they reached on Nov. i o. The French
troops were landed, the Venetian galleys burst
the chain that closed the entrance of the harbour,
and the Zaratini, finding no help was forthcoming
fi'om the Hungarians or Croatians, sent ambassa-
dors to the Doge and offered to surrender on
condition their lives were spared.
The Doge did not think it proper to act without
consulting his allies, but when, after obtaining
their consent, he returned to his tent he found the
ambassadors gone. During his absence some of
the French who were unfavourable to the enter-
prise had advised the envoys to withdraw theii*
offer, and assured them that the pilgrims would
not assault a Christian city. The envoys had ac-
cordingly returned to their countrymen and per-
suaded them to continue their resistance ; and
when the Doo-e called on his allies to aid him in
taking Zara by force, the abbot of Vaux rose and
forbad the soldiers of the cross to attack a Chris-
tian city, and several of the barons refused to
fulfil their engagement.
The more politic counsels of those French leaders
however prevailed who saw the necessity of
carrying out their agi"eement with the Venetians,
and a general assault on the city followed, the
French attacking it by land and the Venetians by
54 History of Dalniatia. [Ch, i.
A.D. 1202. sea. After a resistance of five days, one of the
ZaJl'bv t!fe towers being undermined by the Venetians, the
Crusaders, g^rrison found themselves unable to make any
further resistance, and surrendered on condition
that their lives should be spared. The Venetians
destroyed the town walls and towers, and accord-
ing to Thomas Archidiaconus levelled all the
houses, leaving nothing standing but the churches ^
This however is not confirmed by other writers,
and is inconsistent with the fact that both Vene-
tians and French wintered at Zara, and did not
sail thence to the conquest of Constantinople till
A D. 1 203. the 7th of April in the following year. The
destruction of the buildings may have been only
partial, but the town was desolated, and the in-
habitants mistrusting the clemency of the Doge
fled in numbers to the Hungarian territory.
Disputes broke out between the allies, in which
the Venetians being numerically the weaker party
sufi^ered most, and peace was restored with diffi-
culty by the leaders. Universal disapproval fell
on the crusaders who had sacked a Christian
city. Among the French themselves as we have
seen some acted against their inclination, and
one of the most illustrious among them, Simon
de Montfort, dejDarted from the camp before the
assault was given. Innocent III. showered his
reproofs and excommunications on the offenders,
but though the French submitted and were
^ Thorn. Arcliid. c xxv ; Villehardouin, ch. xlix. Yid. below,
Chapter iii. oii Zara.
Cm. I.] History of Dalnmtia. 55
absolved, the Venetians refused to acknowledge
the rio-ht of a churchman to interfere in their
temporal concerns.
It was at Zara that the final treaty was made Treaty of
with Alexius the fugitive prince from Constant 1- saders with
1 , , • p ' ^ • 11' Alexius.
nople, and the enterprise 01 restoring him and his
father to the imperial throne was due principally
to the armiments of the Venetians, anxious to
complete the imperfect satisfaction that had been
made them for the injuries received from Manuel,
and eager to embrace the opportunity of the
presence of such powerful auxiliaries ^ On April a. d. 1203.
7, 1203, the united armament set sail, leaving oAhe ""^^
Zara overwhelmed with a ruin scarcely less com- constanti-
plete than that which had for her sake been in- ""^ ^'
flicted on Belgrad some seventy-five years before.
The exiled Zaratini lost no opportunity of
revenging themselves on Venetian traders after
the fleet and army had sailed, and to check their
depredations the Venetians built a castle on an
island opposite Zara, which was taken and
destroyed by the Zaratini with the aid of ten
galleys of Gaieta which were induced by the arch-
bishop of Spalato to take the part of the exiles.
The fugitive population began to return to their Return of
desolate city, to restore and inhabit the ruined tives to
houses, and to repair their shattered walls, but submission
to Venice.
^ ' ExindeVeneti sperantesrefectionem daninonim abEmanuele
olim promissam sed nondum solutam Francorum auxilio se
confecturos simulque inopiae militum suppletum iri,' &c. Luc.
1. iv. c. i. p. 155.
56 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. t.
hearing that a fleet was bemg equipped at Venice,
and would be upon them before their defences
were complete, they finally resolved to make their
submission. The Venetians had enough on their
hands elsewhere, and were willing to come to
terms. Domaldus the Huno^arian count was dis-
missed and a Venetian put in his place, the
Zaratini were bound to serve against the enemies
of the republic, their possessions in the islands
were restored to them in return for an annual
tribute of 3000 rabbit skins, and it was agreed
that their archbishop should acknowledge the
patriarch of Grado for his spiritual superior.
A.D. 1 21 7. Andrew II, brother and successor of Emeric,
' took the cross and gathered a powerful armament
for the transport of which he was obliged to have
recourse to the navies of Venice, Ancona, Zara, and
other towns on the shores of the Adriatic, and in
recompense for the friendly ofiices of the Venetians
he ceded to them all claims the crown of Hungary
might have on Zara\ The rendezvous was at
Spalato, whither so vast a multitude assembled
that they could not be collected within the city,
but encamped in the surrounding country. The
king was lodged ' sumptuously ' in a house called
' Mata,' outside the north gate, the Porta aurea
of Diocletian's palace ; ten thousand knights
formed his immediate following and constituted
the flower of the army, and the multitude of
^ ' Ut jura quae Rex in Jadra se asserit habere in Veuetos
transferrentur.' Dandolo, lib. x. c. iv. pars. 26.
Ch. I.] History of Dalniatia. 57
infantry and followers appeared to tlie eyes of
Thomas the Archdeacon innumerable. Ships
could not be found sufficient to transport them
all, and some had to return home and others to
-wait till the following year\
Before departing from Spalato the gTateful king
oftered the citizens the fortress of Clissa and the
countship of the neighbouring islands ; and finding
the Spalatines deficient in that public spirit which
should have inspired them to accept at all events
the fortress which stood in such dangerous
proximity and commanded the passes to the
interior-, he did the best he could for the interests
of the city by entrusting Clissa not to one of his
nobles but to the grand master of the Templars in
Hungary, w^ith a charge to change periodically the
members of the brotherhood who garrisoned it.
At this time w^hile the Hunsfarians were occu- Aimissan
^ _ piracies.
pied by troubles at home, and the Venetians en-
gaged at Constantinople, the Almissans come first
into notice as inheritors of the piratical traditions
of the South Dalmatian Serbs. Their ranks were a.d. 1:21.
swelled by outlaws and political refugees from the
cities, and by ruffians who wanted employment
for their arms. Their attacks on Venetian com-
' Thorn. Archid. c. xxvi. Andrew was summoned home by
disturbances in his kingdom of Hungary, wliich he reached after
a series of romantic adventures. He had been offered the
throne of Constantinople by the Latins, but declined it in
favour of Peter of Courtenay. Yid. Gibbon, ch. Ixi.
^ ' Spalatcnses suo more ad publica nimis tardi ad privata
coramoda singuli intendebant.' Thoni. Arch. xxvi.
58 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i.
merce were at first commanded or encouraged by
the kings of Hungary, incapacitated at the time
from taking any other revenge for the loss of
Zara, but after the Hungarians and Venetians had
come to terms by the treaty of Andrew II, in 1 2 1 7,
the pirates continued their operations on their own
account.
Ahnissa at the mouth of the river Cetina, was
protected towards the sea by the intricacy of the
navigation, and towards the land by an impassable
barrier of mountains ; and issuing from this secret
lair the Almissans preyed indiscriminately on the
commerce of the Adriatic, and even stojoped and
Mission of pillaged pilgrims on their way to Palestine. So
theTegate. iusecuro did the navigation of those seas become
that Pope Honorius III. wrote to the Spalatini
urging them to unite with the other Dalmatians
in a crusade against the Almissans, and he sent a
legate, the Subdeacon Aconcio, to ensure atten-
tion to his mandates ^ Spalato Trail Clissa and
Aimissan Sebcuico United in a league against the corsairs ; a
repressed, naval and equestrian force was collected, and the
Almissans, finding themselves attacked both by
land and sea and unable to sustain the contest,
made their submission, burned their boats, and
swore to keep the peace for the future.
The Bogo- But the missiou of Aconcio was not only
du^ected against the secular enormities of the
Almissans : the taint of heresy which had long
^ See Luc. de regn. lib. iv. c. iv. p. 162 fox* the letter of
Honorius.
miles.
Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 59
infected the Serbs Croatians and Bulgarians of the
interior liad extended to tlie cities of the coast
and caused serious alarm to the Papal court.
The history of the Bogomiles^ or Paterenes
among the Southern Slavs is extremely obscure
and has yet to be explored and written. The
accounts of Poman Catholic historians are natur-"
ally coloured by prejudice, and even at the
present day, though in Bosnia and Herzegovina
there are thousands of Bogomiles who adhere with
fidelity to the creed their forefathers have pro-
fessed from time immemorial, and to which they
have clunff throufrh trials of exile fire and blood
not inferior to those of theh^ noble brethren in
the valleys of Piedmont, it is difiicult to get any
trustworthy account of their habits and opinions
from their neighbours 2. Like the Vaudois they
are poor and illiterate, and unlike them they
have not been so fortunate as to obtain defenders
and excite interest in Protestant countries. They
have had no Milton to implore vengeance for their
slaughtered saints, and no Cromwell to stay the
hand of the oppressor in their extremity, and
now that they are no longer persecuted theu'
^ The word ' Bog' in the Illyrian language means ' God.'
* In Dalmatia I found current even among men of cultiva-
tion stories about the Bogomiles of tliesame scandalous character
as those that were spread about the Albigenses or Paulicians,
and no doubt equally untrue. In the native ' Protestantism '
of these countries a wide and interesting subject awaits the
industiy of some one who has mastered the Servian language,
and can be trusted to write without prejudice.
6o History of Dalmatia. [Ch. I.
very existence is almost forgotten. And yet at
one time it seemed probable that their doctrines
would have prevailed over those of Rome through-
out the Balkan peninsula wherever the Slavs
held rule, and at one time the Paterene bishop
was on at least an equal footing with the Latin
and Greek prelates at the courts of Servia and
Bosnia.
Early his- Xho history of these two countries before the
tory of ''
Bosnia. adveut of the Hungarians is very obscure^.
Their inhabitants belonged to the Serb branch
of the Slavonic settlers whom Heraclius brought
in to dispossess the Avars, and being more
removed from the superior civilization of the
coast and less brought into contact with the
countries of western Europe than the Croatians,
they were more backward in their national de-
velopment. Bosnia at all events seems to have
remained in a kind of dependence on the dukes
and kings of Croatia till that kingdom was itself
absorbed by Hungary in 1102, after which it
enjoyed a brief independence till conquered by
Geiza H. in 1 141, when the Ban became a vassal
of the Hungarian crown.
Early his- Scrvia was better able to preserve her inde-
tory 01 -■■
Servia. pendciice under her own princes of the Nemagna
dynasty of whom the first was Dessan, duke of
Chelmo or Chulm, who obtained the throne
about 1 1 50 after a series of bloody revolu-
^ A sketch of Bosnian history will be found in Mr. Evans's
' Through Bosnia and Herzegovina.'
Cu. I.] History of Dalmatia. 6i
tions \ Stephen Nemagna, Lord of Servia or Rascia,
about 1 2 1 7 exchanged his title of ' Mega Juppa-
nus ' for that of King, with the consent of Pope
Honorius III. who sent his legate to crown him
the first king of Servia -.
At the courts both of Bosnia and Servia the Spread of
Bogomil-
Boffomile doctrines were ree'arded favourably, i^m in the
Not only did Culin the gTeat Ban of Bosnia openly century.
espouse them and protect those who professed
them as his father Boric had done before him,
but Daniel the Bosnian bishop declared himself
an adherent, and Bosnia became the refuge of
those whom persecution had diiven out of other
countries. The thunders of the Vatican rolled
harmlessly over their heads, and the commands
of the King of Hungary were unheeded ; for
Culin felt himself strong enough to resist any
forcible interference, and the arguments of
^ The ducliy of Chulmia or Chelmo included the maritime
district known as the Craina, between the Xarenta and the
Cetina, together with some of the neighbouring islands. Luc.
lib. iv. c. iv. p. i6o explains ' Slavo vocabulo Crainam id est
finitimam regionem dictam.' He identifies Chelmo with the
Zachlumia of Porphyrogenitus.
^ He is generally distinguished by the historians as ' II
primo coronato.' Vid, Thorn. Archid. c. xxvi. The Servian
crown was however nominally dependent on that of Hungary.
BelalV. in 1243 styles himself Bela D.G. Hungariae, Dalmatiae,
Croatiae, Ramae, Serviae, Galiciae, Lodomeriaeque Eex.' Luc.
p. 165. Lewis the Great in 1345 uses the same titles. Yid.
Obsid. ladr. lib, ii. c. iii. Kama included Bosnia. The King
of Servia called himself King of IJascia, one part of Servia, to
avoid the title used by the King of Hungary. Vid. Luc. de
regn. v. iii. p. 256.
62 History of Dahnatia. [Ch. I.
Aconcio during his mission into Bosnia produced
little effect. The doctrines spread down to the
coast ; they were generally embraced in the
territory of Cattaro ; two successive counts of
Spalato are described by the orthodox archdeacon
as tainted with heresy \ and the crowning sin for
which he conceives Zara to have been visited
with destruction in 1202 is her defection from
the Catholic faith and her inclination to heretical
opinions^. For there was according to him
scarcely any man of importance at Zara who did
Peisecu- not ' receivo heretics and cherish them.' After
tion of the
Bogoniiies. Culin's death a Catholic Ban Zibisclave was ap-
pointed, but his influence was insufiicient, and
at last fire and sword were called to the aid of
orthodoxy in Bosnia as they had been in Pro-
vence. For centuries Bosnian history is filled
with annals of persecution and bloodshed, but
Bogomilism has never been extirpated, and the
number of its adherents at the present day is
probably far greater than is generally supposed;
^ ' Buisenus . . . licet esset vir nobilis dives et potens, fautor
tamen haereticorum erat.'
' Erat autem idem Petrus vir jiotens et bellicosus, sed non sine
infamia haereticae foeditatis.' Thorn. Aix'hid. c. xxix.
^ ' Hoc enim ad nequitiae suae cumulum addideruiit, ut
Catliolicae fidei normam spernerent, et haeretica se permitterent
tabe respergi. Nam pene omnes qui nobiliores et majores
ladrae censebantur libenter recipiebant haereticos et fovebant.'
Thorn. Archid. c. xxv. Yet if this were so one may be sur-
prised at the abstention of Simon de ]\Iontfort, and the indigna-
tion of Innocent III ; the head that phmned and the hand that
executed the massacre of the unhappy Albigenses need not have
been so scrupulous in this case.
Ch. I.] History of Dalinatia. 6
o
for it Is said that during the insurrection of 1876
there were among the refugees at Ragusa more
than 2000 Bogomiles from the single district of
Popovo in Herzegovina \
That the persecuted ' Protestants ' should oc-
casionally have retaliated by deeds of violence
is not to be wondered at, and we are told of
three brothers who were killed for their adher-
ence to the Catholic faith near Cattaro-. But
the tolerance of the ' liereticaV Servian kings
contrasts favourably with the bigotry of the
other party : we read of a Patarene bishop at-
tending by order of Ourosh II. to witness the
restoration of a relic by a Patarene who had
stolen it, and at the court of Ourosh III. we find
amicably seated at the same council table the
bishops of the three rites, Greek, Patarene, and
Latin ■•'.
The piracies of the Almissans had only ceased for Renewed
11 11 • 1 p^''^<^y of
a tune and they soon broke out agam, encouraged Almissans.
by the loose government of the Hungarians, and
the factious strife of the citizens of the Dalma-
tian toAvns. Spalato, at last, tired of civil
discord and disgusted with her Croatian counts,
resolved, on the advice of Thomas the Archdeacon,
' Vid. Introduction to Mr. Evans's ' Through Bosnia and
Herzegovina,' p. xliv.
* Vid. History of Cattaro, infra, c. xxii.
' Memorie storiche sulle bocche di Cattaro. G. Gclcicli.
64 Histojy of Dalmatia. [Ch. i.
our historian of these times, to choose a ' Latin '
podesta and to govern the city on the Latin or
Itahan model. Thomas hunself and Micha Madii,
were deputed to visit Ancona and ask that city
to send one of her citizens to govern them for a
A.D. 1239. year. The choice fell on Gargano degli Arsacidi,
PodestT 9'iicl his term of office, which was extended to a
o >paiato. ggcond and third year, was marked by firm and
judicious administration. In his second year of
office he undertook to punish and repress the
Almissans. Twelve hundred armed men repre-
sented the military force of Spalato, to whom the
Traiirini added reluctantly a small contingent,
and with this force Gargano began the campaign
by seizing the island of Brazza which with that
of Lesina was held by Osor and Pribislav sons of
Malduco, count of Almissa. Osor the count of
Brazza was nearly surprised and captured, but
' like a slimy eel ' he managed to slip through
the fingers of his pursuers, and raising a large
force of Almissans so harassed the Spalatines
A.D 1240. that Gargano could with difficulty induce them
theAi-° to continue the war. Osor ravaged the island
of Solta, violating churches, breaking the altars
like a Pagan, scattering the relics, and throwing
to the ground with daring hand the very
Eucharist. But in a second foray on the island
of Brazza the Almissans were surprised and
worsted, Osor himself captured, and his whole
force either slain or taken. The captives lay in
prison at Spalato for ten months before the
missans.
Ch. I ] History of Dahiatia. 65
Almissans could be brought to surrender their
fleet and swear to abstain from pu•acy^
The Dalmatians were no sooner rid of the a.d. 1241.
Almissan piracies than a fresh and more frightful vaeion of
visitation befel them. The earlier part of the "'^*'^-
thirteenth century was marked by the great out-
burst of the Mogiils or Tartars. Between 1 2 1 o
and 1258 China, Persia, and the Caliphate fell
before the arms of Zinghis and his sons. Be-
tween 1235 and 1245 Baton, nephew of Octal
and gi-andson of Zinghis, overran Russia, burning
Kiefl* and Moscow, and in 1241 after penetrating
into Poland as far as Lignitz, he invaded Hun-
gary. Bela IV, son and successor of Andi-ew II,
who had married Maria daughter of the Emperor
Theodore Lascaris, was unpopular, and neither he
nor his ministers seem to have made any serious
preparations to resist the invasion which had for
so many years been imminent. The Hungarians it
is said had declined from their ancient martial
character and become luxurious ^ and it was with
some difficulty that an army was assembled to
meet the invaders on the frontier. A disastrous Defeat of
Bela IV.
^ Thom. Archid. c. xxxvi. His account of the affair is
written with spirit. His heroes make orations to their troops
in true classic style.
* ' Terra Ung. omnibus bonis locuples et faecunda causam
praestabat suis filiis ex rerum copia immoderatis delitiis
delectari. Quod enim aliud erat juvenilis aetatis studium nisi
polire caesariem, cutem mundare, virilem habitum in muliebrem
cultum mutare. Tota dies cxquisitis conviviis aut mollibus
expcndebatur locis, nocturnes sopores vix hora diei tertia ter-
minabat,' &c. Thom. Archid. c. xxxvii.
V(n. I F
66 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i.
defeat in the first battle laid Hungary prostrate,
and the victorious Tartars overran the whole
country slaying and burning, their women and
children vying with the men in cruelty and blood-
shed.
The country north of the Danube was lost in a
single day. The cities were laid in ruins, the
churches defiled and thrown down, the Danube
itself ran with blood, and the corpses were col-
lected in ghastly heaps along its banks to terrify
tlie fugitive and native Hungarians on the other
side whose fate it was to be devoured next. The
Hungarians of a later age now expiated the
atrocities of their forefathers, and as in 924 the
cry had gone up from the churches of Italy ' Oh
save and deliver us from the arrows of the Hun-
garians,' so now arose the doleful litany ' From
the fury of the Tartars, good Lord, deliver us^'
Advance Bela had sent his wife his children and his
of Tartars
into Dal- troasurcs to the inaccessible rock of Clissa near
matia.
Spalato. He himself escaped from the battle into
Austria, and thence to Zagabria (Agram) where
he assembled around him the remains of his
A.D. 1242. shattered forces. The hard frosts of January
Bela IV. enabled the enemy to cross the Danube. Buda
was burned, and Strigonium (Gran) shared the
same fate, but Alba Regalis (Stuhlweissenburg)
was saved by her impassable marshes, and by the
haste of the Tartar leader Caydan to overtake
the king. The arrival of the invading hordes at
^ Vicl. Gibbon, chapters Iv. and Ixiv.
Cn. I.] History of Dabnatia. 67
the Drave was the signal for the further flight of
the Hungarians. Abandoning Zagabria to its
fate Bela retreated with the flow^er of his army
and numerous magnates and bishops of the realm,
and took refuge within the walls of Spalato,
where he was hospitably received by the podest^
Gargano and the archbishop and people. But
even the stout walls of Diocletian behind which
he had sheltered himself failed to give the trem-
bling king any feeling of security : he urged the
Spalatines to prepare him a galley for escape by
sea, upbraided them for their slo^vness in com-
pleting it^ and hastily embarking with his wife
and his treasures fled to Trali ; nor did he
venture to rest even there, but hid himself in
a neighbouring islet, still known as Kraglievab,
the Icings abode, ofl" the end of the island of
Bua.
Meanwhile the Tartars were in hot pursuit. Tartar in-
vasion of
After a general massacre of their prisoners Daimatia.
A.D. 1242.
they descended into Croatia and appeared before
the walls of Spalato. The inhabitants taking the
first body of them to be Slavs, such as they were
in the habit of encountering, prepared to go out
and attack them, but when undeceived by the
Hungarian refugees who had had experience of
Tartars, a panic fell on the city.
^ 'Fecerunt autera Spaliit. oiniiia aJ Regis placitum, hoc
excepto quod ei (luaiulaiu gakam luiuiiue potucre tarn celcriter
preparare quantiiin Hex dcclinaus Tartaroium rabiem expetebut.
Quod factum uou batis acquuuimiter tulit Kegius animus.'
Thorn. Arcliid. c. xxxix.
68 History of Dahnatia. [Ch. I.
Tartar in- Oiilv a few, however, of the Tartars turned
vasion. oii ii* ii* {y
A.D. 1242. aside to Spalato ; the king was the object 01
their j)ursuit, and after an inefPectual attack on
CHssa, finding he was not there, they followed
him to Traii. It was March, the weather was
severe, and there was no grass for the horses ; and
Caydan was only able to bring a part of his army
with him. Unable to ford the deep muddy
channel which isolates Trail from the mainland,
and unprovided with boats for passing it, he
challenged the citizens by a messenger in the
Slavonic tongue to surrender the king, and not
to involve themselves in the fate of one who was
only a foreigner amongst them. The Traiirini,
however, stood firm, and the Tartars were
obliged to give up the pursuit \ During March
they appeared five or six times before the cities,
and then passed on through Bosnia and Servia
to Upper Dahnatia. On Ragusa they could make
no impression, but they burned Cattaro and
sacked Suacia and Drivosto, putting the entire
^ The channel is now a mere ditch, but was in ancient times
much wider. Still it could not have been that which finally
checked the Tartars, for we are toldby Thoniasliimself (ch. xxxviii.)
of their practice of making boats of osiers and skins when they
came to rivers too deep to ford. The explanation of their
retreat is probably to be found in their want of apparatus for a
regular siege, and still more in the difficulty alluded to by
Thorn. Archid. of finding fodder for their horses ; their force
consisted of cavalry, and there is but little pasturage in Dalma-
tia. The narrative of the Tartar invasion by Thomas wlio was
an eye-witness is extremely interesting. Vid. his chajpters xxxvii.
to xl.
Ch. T.] History of Dalniatia. 69
population to the sword. Ileturning throiigli Retreat
Servia and Bulgaria they massacred their re- Tartars.
maining captives, and finally crossing the Danube " ' "^ '
returned to the Volga and relieved Europe of
their frightful presence. Famine followed their
steps, for the husbandmen had been unable to
sow their crops, and it is estimated that the
Tartars desti'oyed as many by the want and
pestilence which they left behind them as they
had actually slain in battle or in cold blood. It
is no wonder that the world of those days read in
this awful visitation one of the signs premonitory
of the advent of Antichrist.
Bela, assured of his safety, emerged from his Return of
hiding-place, and leaving his queen and his youth- Hungary.
ful son Stephen at Clissa prepared to return to
his capital. His tw^o daughters Catharine and
Marc^aret had died durino; the horrors of the
invasion and were buried in a stone coffin
over the door of the duomo of Spalato, and
William, son of the Emperor Baldwin, who
was betrothed to Margaret, died at the same
time at Trail where he lies buried in the Ca-
thedral.
Bela arrived at the island of Veglia, then
governed by the Frangipani as feudatories of the
Venetian republic. Policy and compassion l^oth
induced Bartolommeo the reigning count to help
the Hungarian cause, and it is said the force
which he raised at his own expense encountered
and defeated a Tartar army on the plain of Grob-
70 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i.
nico near Fiume^. However this may have been,
it appears that the count raised 25,000 marks in
coin and collected an amount of j)late and other
precious things which he bestowed on his royal
guest, who in return granted to the counts Fede-
rigo and Bartolommeo Frangipani in 1255 the
feud of Segna in Croatia, Their acceptance of
this gift brought upon them the suspicion of the
Venetians, who deprived them of their feud of
Veglia in consequence, and did not readmit them
till 1260.
A.D. 1242. Either iust before or at the time of the Tartar
Second ...
revolt of invasion Zara again revolted from the Venetians,
Zara from , . .
Venetians, mstigatod by tlio Empcror Frederick II, against
whom the Venetians had allied themselves with
the Pope, The Count Giov, Michieli was ex-
pelled, the aid of the Hungarians implored, the
Venetian residents imprisoned and their property
seized, though both were afterwards released and
restored. The Venetians assaulted the city with
a powerful fleet from both sides having burst the
chain that guarded the port, but the Zaratini
held out till the Ban Dionysius whom Bela had
sent to command them was wounded and left
^ Vid. Cubich, Notizie natural! e storiche suU' Tsola di Veglia,
part ii. p. 75, but he does not give his authority, and no mention
of this battle or of the incredible slaughter of 65,000 Tartars
occurs in Thorn, Archid. or in Lucio, Bela's deed of gift in 1255
mentions the 25,000 marks and other presents but says nothing
of the victory. Vid. inf. History of Veglia, ch. xxvi. There is
another Grobnica or Grobnico near Zai'a which, according to
some, was the scene of this battle.
f'H. I.] History of Dalmatia. 71
tlie city, wlien the whole population was seized
with panic, and the Hungarians first, and then
tlie citizens, made for the gates in order to escape.
The Venetians, landing their troops, allowed the Zara re-
fugitives to pass with impunity, and the city was Td^Tz^s,
recovered with scarcely any loss of life\ To en- "°^ ''
sure the fidelity of Zara in the future the Vene-
tians planted a colony of their own citizens in
the half-deserted city, and for their protection
against the expatriated Zaratini, who had taken
refuge in Nona and other towns subject to the
Hungarians, a defensive league w^as formed be-
tween the new citizens and the islands of Arbe
Cherso and Veglia, ^^'hich were then feudatory
counties held under the rejDublic by the families
of IMorosini and Frangipani. The expatriated Zara-
tini, after for some time endeavouring to revenge
themselves by reprisals on Venetian merchantmen,
at last submitted themselves to the good pleasure
of the Doge and were readmitted on liberal terms.
The Venetians had enough to occupy themselves
in the daily increasing perils and sinking fortunes
of the Latin Empire of Constantinople, and the
Pope, anxious to unite Europe for a fresh crusade,
used his best endeavours to reconcile Venice and
the King of Hungary. Peace was agi'eed to on a.d. 1344.
the terms that the Hungarians should leave \^^^T^
Venice in undisturbed possession of Zara and the zamini.
' Tlioni. Artliid. says ' Tota civitas capta est ferme a1)S(]ue
ulla Rtrage altcrutrius partis,' di. xliii. l);ui(lulo says ' absque
notabili caede.'
72 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. I.
Division of neighbouring islands, and that the maritime
between towns bejond the Kerka — Sebenico Trail and
Hungary! Spalato— should remain subject to the Hungarian
crown. An amnesty was granted to the fugitive
Zaratini and they were allowed to return, but
from being allies of the Republic they were re-
duced to the condition of subjects. The liberty
of electing their own count, enjoyed by all the
other privileged towns of Dalmatia, was not re-
stored to the rebellious citizens, but they were
required to accept a count appointed by the
Venetians, whose term of office was to be fixed
by the pleasure of the Doge, and who was to
be accompanied by two councillors, also appointed
by the sovereign city^. A garrison was placed
in the castle under a Venetian castellan, and the
Zaratini were forbidden to rebuild their walls
without the express permission of the Doge.
They were to give hostages for five years, and
to contribute a contingent of one man for each
house to the Venetian armament in case of a levy
of more than thirty galleys for service beyond
Kagusa, and to pay a life pension of two hundred
Venetian lire to the count Zuanne Michieli whom
they had expelled.
Eeiative By the torms of this settlement and by the
of Venice effcct of previous circumstances Venice had now
gary. obtained all, or nearly all, that she cared to have.
44- rpj^^ possession of Zara and the islands was the
^ The conditions are cited at length hy Luc. lib. iv. c. vi.
p. 1 68.
Ch. L] History of Dalmatia. 73
main object of her })olicy in Dalmatia, as the a.d. 1244.
means to that dominion of the Adi-iatic which
was necessary to her commercial and national
gi'eatness. For the security of her commerce she
required the islands, for in those days of slow
navigation by short stages her ship])ing requh-ed
stations and arsenals at short distances, and it
was indispensable that these should be in her
own and not in foreign and possibly hostile hands.
Her maritime supremacy to be sure placed the
islands at all times within her grasp, but if Zara
were in the possession of an enemy she was
liable to lose them at any moment, whereas if
Zara were hers it was of less importance who
occupied the other maritime towns, and of little
or no consequence to whom the country behind
belonged ^. Zara with its narrow territory on the Venetian
posses-
mainland was now hers by the treaty of i244;sion3.
the island of Ossero had always been Venetian
since the days of Pietro Orseolo, and w^as now
under the hereditary government of the Moro-
sini as feudatories of the Republic ; the island
of Veglia was held for her in the same Vay by
the Frangipani ; Arbe had persisted in her loyalty
since the reconquest of the island by Ordelafo
' ' ladra enlm ex situs opportunitate occidentalis Dalmatiae
praecipua cxistebat, quam dum in potestate habucrunt Veneti,
omnes quoque ejusdem partis Insulas ex consequenti facile
retinuei-unt, et sicuti Insulas terrestribus Ungarorum viribus
destitutas facile acquirere poterant, ita earundem acquisitio
absque ladra neque tuta neque diuturna esse poterat.' Luc. iii.
V. p. 122.
74 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i.
A.D. 1244. Faliero in 11 17 and was governed by elective
counts, chiefly of the famiUes of Morosini and
Michieh ; Lesina was to be sure still subject to
the counts of Almissa, but she voluntarily sought
the protection of the Republic a few years later ^
and Curzola was held as a Venetian fief by the
family of Zorzi, who recovered it from the Hun-
garians in 1 1 29, and whose authority had recently
been confiiined. On the mainland the Venetian
Hungarian territory ended at the Kerka, which falls into the
posses- ^
sions. sea at Sebenico, and that city, with Trail Spalato
and the coast southwards, remained subject to
Hungary ; but at Ragusa Venetian influence was
Ragusa de- suprcme, and whatever Rag^usan patriotism may
pendent on -^ . .
Venice, havc to Say for the previous independence of the
republic of S. Biagio, there can be no doubt that
from 1 22 1 till the time of Lewis the Great
Ragusa M*as under the government of Venetian
counts regularly appointed by the republic of
S. Mark. Beyond the territory of Ragusa neither
Hungary nor Venice had at present any matter
Cattaro de- for dispute, for Cattaro and the Bocche acknow-
penuent on '■
Servia. ledgcd the supremacy and lived under the protec-
tion of the kings of Servia.
Review of jf ^g iwxw to cousider the internal condition
state 01
Dalmatia. of Dalmatia at this period and compare it with
c. 1250. ^ ^
that at the time of the first coming of the
Hungarians, we find that during the century
' In 1278.
Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 75
and a lialf that divides the two eras the
relative positions of the Latins and Croatians
had heen reversed. With the extinction of the
kincrdoni of Croatia the Croats sank into the
position of mere provincials of the Hungarian
crown, and the maritime towns, from being their
tributaries, became their fellow-subjects, on equal
or rather superior terms, for they retained their
autonomy under Hungarian protection. Left in
possession of their municipal liberties, and re-
lieved froni the piracies which hindered their
commercial development before the Venetians
made the seas safe, the maritime cities rapidly
grew in w^ealth and consequence. They had no Military
longer anything to fear from the Slavs of the tiie towns.
neighbourhood, whom they were able to meet
on equal terms, not only on sea, but on land,
for they had now an organized militia well armed
and disciplined, and we have seen that the Spala-
tines under their podestil Gargano were able to
vanquish the Almissans and put an end to their
piracies without any aid from either Venetian
or Hungarian. Among the other cities Zara was
pre-eminent in wealth and power, and the his-
torian of Spalato envies while he aftects to deride
the military ambition of the rival city and the
forts and townships which she planted in her
territory ^
* ' Cum enira inter caeteros comprovinciales suos terra marique
forent potentia et divitiis sublimati fastidio habere coeperuut
nauticis lucris incumbere voluerunt militiac pompas inaniter
"J^ History of Dalmatia. [Ch. I,
State of Concurrently with their civil development the
Dalmatia. arts had flourished within the walls of the Dal-
matian cities, while among the Slavs without
little or no progress was made in this respect.
The architecture of the thirteenth century
at Zara Trail and Spalato will bear compari-
son in point both of design and execution
with the contemporary work in Italy by which
it was principally inspired, though, as we shall
see hereafter when considering it more at length,
it possesses also a distinctively national character.
At Zara the new Duomo was approaching com-
pletion, the beautiful basilican church of S. Griso-
gono had been erected and adorned with precious
mosaics, and the convent of Santa Maria had
been constructed, of which the fine tower and
chapter-house still remain to us ; at Trail the
main fabric of the Duomo was well advanced and
the two doorways were completed of which the
western one is unsurpassed by any Romanesque
portal in Europe ; at Spalato the cathedral in
the temple or tomb-house of Diocletian was en-
riched by the magnificent carved and gilded doors
of Magister Guvina with their twenty-eight re-
liefs of subjects from the life and passion of our
Lord, by the curious semi - oriental stall -work,
probably from the same hand, that still adorns
the choir, and above all by the exquisite pulpit
of carved and inlaid marble. E-agusa during the
experiri. Constructis nempe villis et oppidis gaudebant
militari equitatu volare.' Thorn. Arclud. c. xliii.
Ch. I.] Histo7'y of Dalmatia. 77
same period had built her cathedral, with the state of
gifts, perhaps, of our English King Ilichard, a Dalmatia.
building which, to judge from the description of '
those w^ho saw it ^ must have been among the
most interesting on the shores of the Adriatic,
but of which the disastrous earthquake of 1667
has left us only the memory. The minor arts
were studied with equal care, and Lorenzo, a
Dalmatian born, who ruled the church of Spalato
from 1059 to 1099, ^^'^s at the pains to send a
servant of his to Antioch in order to perfect him-
self in the goldsmiths' and silversmiths' art, who
on his return was employed to make several
candelabra, ewers, and chalices, a pastoral staff
and cross, and other things in the style of the
art of Antioch, wdiich was probably the same
as that of Byzantium. Nor was literature dis- state of
regarded: in the time of the same Lorenzo c. 1250.
a scholar of Paris, on his way to study Greek
at Athens, w^as employed by the archbishop to
translate the uncouth legends of S. Domnus into
polished verse, and to compose several hymns in
honour of the saint ; Giovanni Ursini, Bishop of
Trail, was famous for his literary and scientific
acquirements, and Thomas the Archdeacon of
Spalato has left us the earliest history of his
country, written in a style of considerable liveli-
ness and, in spite of the author's frequent pre-
judices, with some historical power.
^ Yid.Philippi dc Diversis de Quartigianis Situs aedificiorura,
&c. Eagusii. Ed. Bruuelli. Zara, 1882.
78 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i.
Temporary ^)^q Tartar iiivasioii and the temporary dis-
independ- -■■ "^
ence of orgfanization of the kino-dom of Hmi2:ary threw
Trail, Spa- » ^ _ ^ . .
lato, and the maritime towns of Dalmatia on their own
Sebenico, , i r>( i
A.D. 1242. resources, and Trail Sebenico and Spalato for
some time enjoyed complete independence as free
republics. Unfortunately one of the first results
of their liberty was a petty war between the
neighbouring cities of Trail and Spalato about
a disputed territory that lay between them ^.
War be- Composcd at first by the influence of the Fran-
tween Trail ^ ■"■
and Spa- ciscau Ghcrardo, the quarrel broke out ao-ain after
lato. , •■• °
his departure, and a naval combat took place off
Trail in which the advantage remained with the
Trallrini, who followed it up by allying them-
selves with the neighbouring Slavs and ravaging
the territory of Spalato. The Spalatini invoked
the aid of Ninosclav, Ban of Bosnia, and with his
A.D. 1 244. aid ravaged in return the lands of Trail ; but the
Trallrini appealed to the king Bela IV, who sent
Dionysius, Ban of all Slavonia and Dalmatia ^, to
put an end to the quarrel and punish the Spa-
latini and Ninosclav. With the entry of these
champions on either side there was of course an
end of the short-lived independence of the two
republics.
Apjoearing before Spalato the Ban demanded
hostages and a large sum of money, and when the
citizens pleaded that this was an invasion of their
^ Thorn. Archid. xliv-xlvii.
^ After the peace of 1244 the king united all his Slavonian
territory under a single Ban or viceroy.
Ch. I.] Hislory of Dalmatia. 79
})iivileges he attacked the town in concert with
the Traiirini, captured and burned the suburb,
and compelled the Spalatini to release their
prisoners, pay an indemnity, give hostages, and
accept a Hungarian archbishop, Hugrinus or
Ugolino Cesmen, a gay and martial prelate,
whom the king intended to be both pontiff and
count of Spalato^
At this time the counts of Bribir of the family a.d. 1247.
of Subich became prominent in Dalmatia. Ste- counts of ^
phen Count of Lika and Bribir was created Ban -^"'^^^•
of all Slavonia and Dalmatia, and his successors
under various titles held the same office till 1 348.
Stephen used his influence to pacify the provmce,
and peace reigned among its various discordant
elements as long as he lived. But the succeeding
counts endeavoured to oppress the maritime cities,
and fostered dissensions among them, and from
hostility to Venice encouraged the j)iracies of the
Almissans, which were always ready to break
out when the peace of the country was disturbed.
^ At this period of the liistory we lose the help of Thomas
the archdeacon of Spalato, who died in 1268, as appears by his
tombstone still existing in the cloister of the Franciscan church
at Spalato. His ' Historia Salonitauorum Pontificum atque
Spalateusium ' breaks off abruptly at the year 1266.
The ' Historia de gestis Romanorum Imperatorum et summ.
Pontificum Pars secundae partis de anno Domini mccxc' by
Micha Madii dc Barbazanis of Spalato carries the narrative of
events down to the year 1330.
Both authors were edited by Giov. Lucio, and their works are
appended to the 2nd edition of his ' De regno Dalmatiae et
Croatiae,' Amsterdam, 1668.
8o History of Dalmatia. [Ch. I,
A.D. 1268. In 1259 Spalato and Trali leagued themselves
Aimtss'an° agalnst the Polizzani, neighbours and confederates
piracies, ^f ^]^g Alixiissans ; in 1268, the Doge wrote to the
commune of Spalato to procure the liberation of
a Venetian citizen whom the Almissans had cap-
tured ; in 1274 Charles of Anjou, King of Naples,
allied himself with Spalato and Sebenico to
repress the pupates of Almissa ; and in 1277 the
Venetians besieged Almissa, and after some
trouble captured and burned the borgo or suburb,
liberated one of their captains and other Ve-
netians whom the pirates had captured, and
received the submission of the islands of Lesina
A.D. 1278. and Brazza, which had hitherto belonged to the
counts of Almissa ^ Notwithstanding this the
piracies continued, for Almissa was difficult of
approach, the roads outside the estuary of the
Cetina were insecure for ships in winter time,
Piracy pro- and the Couuts of Bribir who received a share of
Counts of the s23oil had no inclination to discourage the
lawless enterprises by which they profited, and
their natural enemies the Venetians were the
principal sufferers 2. In 1287 an Italian podesth,
from Fermo, whom the Tralirini had elected to
govern their city, was captured on his way by the
Almissans in spite of the safe-conduct of then' own
count and him of Bribu% and the resentment of the
Dalmatian towns at these and similar outrages
^ Luc. lib. iv. c. ix. pp. 179-183.
'^ ' Ex participatione praedae Comites Breberienses fautores
habuisse arguuut ca quae ex scripturis eliciuntur.' Luc. Ibid.
Ch. I ] History of Dahnatia. 8i
made them listen to the overtures of the Ve-
netians. The KepubHc contracted an oftensive Dalmatian
and defensive alhance with Trali and Spalato, with Ve-
saving the honour of the Doge on one side and against the
the Kmg of Hungary on the other, and in 1292 Ali^'^Hgo.
George, count of Bribii-, was compelled to sign a.d. 1292.
an agreement with the Doge, pledging himself
and his subjects and the commune of Almissa to
abstain from any hostilities and to make good any
damage or injury of which the Venetians might
have reason to complain.
Ladislaus III, grandson of Bela IV, was mur-
dered in 1290, and succeeded by Andi-ew III,
' the Venetian,' son of Tomasina Morosini, during
whose reign nothing was done to disturb the
agreement between Hungary and Venice. After
his death in 1301 the succession was disputed
between Wenceslaus king of Bohemia, Otho
duke of Bavaria, and Charles Robert or Caro- chariea
berto, grandson of Charles II, king of Naples, king of
and Maria of Hungary, sister of the murdered a.d^isS'.
Ladislaus, and it was not till 1308 that Chai'les
Robert succeeded in establishing himself on the
throne to the exclusion of his rivals. The counts
of Bribir had contributed to his success, and
with his ultimate triumph theii' own position
in Dalmatia was strengthened and their influence
in the maritune towns increased.
Paul, Count of Bril^u- and Ban of Croatia, had Discontent
succeeded in getting himself elected count of the ratinf.
maritime towns of Trail Spalato and Sebenico ;
VOL. I. <i
82 History of Dabnatia. [Ch. t.
Zara alone remained independent of him, and he
used his influence to excite the discontent of the
citizens and induce them to throw off their al-
legiance to Venice. The Zaratini had chafed
under the hard terms unposed on them by the
Kepublic in 1244 after then- last rebellion, and
they listened readily to the Ban's proposals. The
moment was propitious, for the Venetians were
involved in various domestic and foreign troubles ;
their maritime power had received a severe shock
by their defeat at the hands of the Genoese off
Curzola in 1298^; the 'Serrata del gran Consiglio'
in 1299 had roused the discontent of the people
and provoked the conspiracies of Marmo Bocconio
and Bajamonte Tiepolo; the state was at war with
the Pope about Ferrara; and the Pope, resorting
to spiritual arms, had placed the Republic under
an interdict, and in 1309 proclaimed a crusade
against her which resulted in the defeat of her fleet
and the interruption and ruin of her commerce^.
Third The Papal bull releasing all the subjects of the
Zara from Venetians from their allegiance gave the Zaratini
Venice,
March and the Hungarians the desu-ed opportunity, and
1311.
^ It was in this battle that Marco Polo was made prisoner by
the Genoese, and carried off to that captivity to which the
world perhaps owes the account of his travels. The number of
captives taken by the Genoese was 5000, among whom was the
Venetian admiral Andrea Dandolo, who from shame and remorse
dashed out his braius against the sides of the galley.
^ '. . . ob iuterdictumPapaleper proximas civitatesDalmaticas
inquisitio fieret an post prohibitioneni Domini Paj)ae aliquid
Yenelis venderetur vel ah eisdem emeretur.' Luc. iv-xii. p. 201.
Ch. I.] History of Dalniatia. 83
in March 1 3 1 1 the city revolted, overpowered the
f::an-ison, and threw itself on the protection of
Paul count of Bribii- and ban of Croatia, whose
son Mladin the citizens elected to govern them
as their count ^ The Venetian count Michele
Morosini managed to make liis escape in the
discruise of a monk, but the two councillors Zuane
Giustiniani and Marco Dandolo were caught by
the people and put in prison-. The King of
Hungaiy accepted the proffered allegiance of the
Zai-atini, reinstated them in the enjoyment of
their ancient privileges, and A\Tote to warn the
Republic not to molest them.
But Venice had now come to terms with theA.o. 1312.
Pope and been relieved of the interdict, and was zark by
free to turn her attention to the recovery of her
revolted subjects. A fleet dispatched under Be-
letto Giustiniani met with a somewhat ludicrous
reverse, for under the cover of night and stormy
w^eather the Zaratini managed to surprise the
galley of the commander, who was ill and asleep
below deck, and to carry him with his crew to
Zara, where he died in prison before the end of
the war. The fleet was afterwards reinforced, June,
and Dalmasio, a captain of Catalonian mercen- sie.je of
aries, was sent M'ith a thousand horse a thousand venetiau
foot and a thousand archers to invest the city by diHiy^Dai-
lund, while tlie fleet under Vitale Canal blockaded
the port. Dahnasio had scarcely entrenched his
' For a table of the counts of Biibir vid. Istlmanfy.de reb.lluug.
- Anonymous Venetian Chronicler cited Lucio, p. 200.
masio.
84 History of Daliuatia. [Ch. I.
Daimasio armv FOund the city before his camjD was threat-
in turn
besieged eiied bj Mladlii, who had succeeded his father
Miadin. Paul and was now Ban of Dalmatia and Slavonian
and who with an army of Slavs and German
mercenaries took up a position whence he could
assault the camp of Daimasio in case the latter
drew out his troops to attack the city. The
summer was passed m a masterly inactivity by
both sides, and the expense of maintaining an
army in the field without any result began to
press heavily on the Venetians. The three
months for which Daimasio had been engaged
and paid had elapsed, and the Venetians knowing
that he could not retire without their transports,
and was therefore in a manner in their power,
oifered him lower terms than he asked for a
renewal of his services. The effect of this was
that he began to traffic with the Ban who had
learned the state of affairs, and who was himself
anxious to bring the war to an end being threat-
ened in the rear by the advance of Ourosh II,
king of Servia, then at war with Hungary.
^f nf^d'^ Miadin had already made proposals to the
and Dal- Venetians that they should receive the submission
of the Zaratini on condition of the restitution of
their ancient privileges as a free city, but the
pride of the Bepublic refused to listen to con-
^ ' Tali titulo utebatur Mladinus Croatorum Banus, Comes
ladrae, Princeps Dahnatiae, et Secundus Bosnensis Banits.'
Luc. lib. iv. c. xiii. p. 203. His complete title was ' comes
perpetuus ladrae.' Storia ck'lla Daliiiazia, Zara 1878.
laasio.
Ch. I.] History of Da /mafia. 85
ditions from her revolted subjects'. Foiled in this
attemjit, Mladin now turned to Dalmasio and
oftered him 1000 gold Horins, and the post of
governor witli an annual salary of the same
amount if lie would himself occupy the city,
promising moreover that if he wished to leave
the country he and his troops should be conveyed
to Apulia at the expense of the Ban. To this
Dalmasio agreed, a feigned attack was made on
the city, the gates were opened by arrangement,
Dalmasio with his forces entered without op-
position, and the Venetians in alarm went on
board their ships, and, anticipating an immediate
attack, put out to sea.
But Dalmasio meditated a second act of September,
treachery, and having gained the city by be- Venetians
traying the Venetians he now resolved to betray zara.
the Ban and make terms with the Venetians
for the surrender of the city to them. His
envoys represented that he had been actuated
by care for their interest in acquiring the city
by stratagem after force had proved unavailing,
and he induced the Zaratini to renew their offer
of submission if their ancient privileges and im-
munities were restored. This time the Venetians
listened, envoys were sent, and terms arranged,
but Dalmasio did not reap any fruits from his
treachery, for finding him.self suspected by both
' 'At Vcnetorum in Zadrenses ^fajestas solitii cum sulxlitis
indignata pacisii nil ohlatoruni adniisit, ofli-nsa miigis lihertutc
petita.' Albt'itinus Miif-satus de gt-st. Italic, lih.ii.ap. Luc. p. 198.
86 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. I.
sides, he claimed the promised safe-conduct and
convoy of himself and his followers, and escaped
to Apulia^.
By the terms of the agreement the Zaratini
regained the privilege of electing their own count
subject to the confirmation of the Doge, the
Venetians withdrew their garrison and dis-
mantled the castle, the citizens were allowed
to govern themselves by their own laws and
customs, and were placed on the footing of allies
and not as on the last occasion that of subjects^.
Their islands also were restored to them, a matter
to which the Zaratini attached the greatest im-
portance, their territory on the mainland being
closely circumscribed by the Croatians and con-
stantly exposed to their invasion.
Tyranny of Mladin was now all-powerful in Dalmatia
counts 01 ■•■
Bribir. Croatia and Bosnia ; the countship of Trail Spa-
lato and Sebenico was held by his younger
brother George, and the Venetians had been
obliged to receive the Zaratini on terms which
had been originally dictated by himself His
power was exercised tyrannically ; he harassed
the Bagusans, interfered even with the neigh-
bouring Croatian counts of Corbavia, and op-
pressed the maritime cities, fomenting civil discord
among them, confiscating their extramural terri-
^ The whole transaction is obscurely told by Albert inns
Mussatus. ' Dalmasius omnium vitandarura iusidiarum astutia
noctu lembum ingressus in Apuliam devectxis est.'
" ' Veluti cum sociis aequo jure conveneruut.' Luc. iv-xii. p.
201.
Cm. I.] History of Dalmatia. 87
tory, and ill-treating the citizens\ His l)rother .v.n. 1315.
George moreover openly encouraged the Almissan pir'^y of
corsairs, granting them many immunities and -^^"^'«8*'^^-
regulating the division of the expenses and spoils
oftheu' piracies by a special charter 2.
The result of the oppressive government of Trail and
. ii'ii !• Sebenico
the Croatian Ban and his brother v/as a revulsion revolt to
of feeling in favour of Venetian rule. For a a.d. lin.
hundred and sixty years and more the Latin or
Dalmatian cities of the coast to the south of the
Kerka had been content to acknowledge the
supremacy of the King of Hungary while their
municipal autonomy and territorial rights had
been respected, but no sooner were these im-
perilled than they at once looked round for
another protector, and in January 1322 Trail ^f^- 1322-
and Sebenico invoked the protection of the Ve-
netians. Mladin ravaged the lands of both
cities but was summoned away to resist a re-
bellion against his authority in Bosnia. Allying Defeat and
captivity
^ Micha Maclii, cli. xviii. The hii^torian's indignation is «f ^^la«ii°-
inflamed by his suspicious of Mladin's orthodoxy ; ' Deum coli
conteninehas et Eccles. C'atholicani, quouiam ordinabas Yl^^x-
scopos, Abbates, et Abbatissas . . . solel^as frequentare legeudo
Bibliam, sed non obscr\'al)as verba I'ibliae.' Here as usual tlie
Patarcne tendencies of the Shvvs arc contrasted with the Roman
orthodoxy of the cities.
^ ' Item quod quando irent in cursum cum ligno 40 remorum
et ultra, lignum sextam partem habi-at expensarum et quintani
partem lucri, et lignum a 24 reinis u.s(juc ad 40 sextam partem
Jucri et textam partem habeat expensarum, sed lignum x.
remis usque ad 24 i)ro duobus hominibus partem recipiat, a
decem autem remin infra de parte unius hominis coutcntetur.'
Charter cited by Lucio, p. 204.
8S History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i.
himself with the Vlachs and Polizzani he gave
battle to the rebels, but was defeated and di'iven
to hide himself in the fastnesses of Poglizza,
whence he escaped to the king Charles Robert
who was then at Knin. He was however ill-
received, his loyalty was suspected, and the king
carried him away with him a prisoner into Hun-
gary \ Profiting by these disturbances among
the Croat ians, the men of Traii made an expe-
dition against Almissa, and those of Sebenico
Victory of agaiust Scardona ; both were successful, the
Sebenico. offending towns were sjDoiled and burned, and
their piratical boats were carried off by the
victors.
April, Though Spalato had not offered allegiance to
feat of the Venetians, her forces were united with those
of Trail in the capture of Almissa, and she seems
to have garrisoned and retained the place. Count
George in consequence invaded and ravaged the
Spalatine territory, and defeated a force of 1200
Spalatini which encountered him near Clissa with
a loss of 1 50 men. In the following year he as-
sembled another army meditating the conquest
June, 1 324. of Spalato, and the recovery of Almissa, which
Defeat and -■ , i • i i i
captivity placo was uecessary to hma as the head-quarters
ofBribir. of the piracy by which he profited 2, but he was
encountered near Knin, and routed and taken
' Miclia Madii, ch. xvii., xviii,, xix.
'^ ' Putabas destruere Civ. Spal. et auferre Almissum, et
habere ad velle vestrum, ubi esset cursiis et locus pirataruni.'
Micha Madius, c. xxiii.
Ch. I.] History of Dahnatia. 8q
prisoner by Neliptio count of Cetina and Knin,
and the voyvode George Mihovilich. In the
following year the Zaratini arbitrated between
the contending parties, and peace was agreed to
between the Spalatini and the countess of the
imprisoned George, the captive S2:)alatini at
CHssa beino- released on one hand and Almissa March,
O
restored on the other ^
The Spalatini in 1327 resolved to follow the ^-d. 1327.
example of Trail and placed themselves under the submits to
protection of Venice. The event of their late
struggle with the Bribir family probably con-
vinced them of their powerlessness to stand alone
in the midst of so many warring elements, and
they made their submission to the Doge on con-
dition that their municipal autonomy should be
respected, and ' saving the honour of the King of
Hungary-.' In the following year Nona, though a Also Nona,
purely Croatian town, \^'hich had never before been January. '
subject to the Venetians, found herself obliged by
the diflficulties of the times, the disturbed state of
affairs and the weakness of the Hungarian go-
vernment, to thrown herself, like the other Dalma-
tian towns, on the protection of the Republic ^
' Luc. iv. c. xiv. p. 210.
"^ Micha Mailii, c. xxviii. Tliis appears to mean tliat his
nominal sovereignty should be respected. The name of the
king was to be retained on all legal writings, and to stand
before that of the Doge. Lucio observes that even under the
Venetian rule the King of Hungary confirmed or refused to
confirm privileges in the cities. Lib. iv. c. xv. p. 220.
^ ' Anchor in q^uesto tempo la Citadc de Spalato e de Nona li
90 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i.
Daimatia TliG tyranny of the family of Bribir had thus
once more f, , .
yenetian. forceo. mto the arms of the Venetians those cities
of the sea coast which were not hers already ;
and all maritime Dalmatia, including the islands,
was now re-united under the banner of S.
Mark for the first time since the days of Ordelafo
Faliero. The policy of a commercial power like
Venice was always directed towards peace, and
her first endeavour was to reconcile the cities
with one another and with the neighbouring
Croatian counts. Though under her suzerainty —
to use a word which modern politics has brought
into fashion — the several cities were not her sub-
jects, but retained their independence and had to
Endea- be treated with separately. A treaty of alliance was
Venice to therefore arranged by the Venetians between the
country/ communcs of Spalato Trail and Sebenico, with
conditions for mutual defence and assistance in
time of war, and for the peaceful adjustment of
disputes by arbitration in place of the old system
of reprisals. The boundaries of the territories
of Trail and Sebenico were settled in this
way, and the question between count George
of Bribir and the city of Spalato was decided
qual iera in estrema e cliattlva condition per lo muodo che de
soura e ditto de Sebenico e de Traci vegendo le ditte Cittade
sottomesse al Comun de Veniesia de chativa condition essex*
vcgnude in bona condition, e in brieve tempo, desse le do Cittade
con le condition e patti delle altre do prenominade, e questo fo
in 1327, che si de Spalatini in lo mese di Settembrio e foli
mandado per so Contc f. Marco Fuscarini.' Ven. Chron. cited
Luc. p. 2 1 o.
Cn. I.] History of Dalinatia. 91
by the arbitration of the Zaratini as has just
been related. The Venetians succeeded also in
composing the civil dissensions by wlilch Trail
had been torn on the question of surrendering the
city to Venice, and which had resulted in the
expulsion of the losing party \ The fuorusciti,
as the Florentines would have called them, were
recalled and reinstated in their possessions, and
the odious partisan distinction of '/rts' and 'outs'
was terminated.
The discordant state of the Croatians of the Disturbed
interior enabled the Venetians to unite some of Dalmatian
the feudal counts with the maritime cities on i,n^ier
terms of amity or alliance. During the troubled K^Jert.
reign of Charles Robert the authority of Hungary
was but little able to make itself felt in Dalmatia,
and the whole country was in disorder. The
ambitious designs and oppressive arrogance of the
counts of Bribir had offended the neig-hbourino;
Croatian nobles as well as the Dalmatians ; and
Mladin had been overthrown by a combination of
Croatian counts under the Bosnian Ban Babonig.
But Babonig himself next provoked the royal
interference, and was defeated by the Great Ban
Nicolas, whom the king had sent to pacify the
countiy^. The counts near the sea coast, in order
' 'Civibus in partes divisis pracscrtira Sebenici et Trag. mutuac
caedes, familiarum expulsiones, bonorum publicationes, domoium
destructioncs perpetratae sunt, et extrinsecorum et intrinseco-
rum odiosa nomiua emerscre.' Luc. lib. iv. xiv. p. 205.
^ Micha ^fadii, oh. xxii. The barren and inflated chronicle
92
History of Dalmatia.
[Ch. I.
Alliance
between
the cities
and
Croatian
counts.
A.n. 1337.
A.D. 1343.
A.D. 1342.
Accession
of Lewis
the Great.
to save themselves from a similar fate, formed an
alliance with the maritime towns at the instance
of the Venetians, and thus supported were able
to command the respect of the next Ban Mihac,
who abstained from meddling with them. Among
these allied counts Nelijotio, count of Knin, was
the most important, and in alliance with Spalato
Trail and Sebenico, which places furnished a con-
tingent of 400 foot-soldiers \ he besieged Mladin
III, son of George of Bribir, and now count of
Scardona and Clissa, in his stronghold at the
latter place. But Neliptio himself was guilty of
aggressions on the territory of Sebenico, and the
Venetians, profiting by the jealousy excited by his
superior power, united Mladin and the counts of
Ostrovizza and Corbavia in a league with the
maritime towns, and caused Neliptio to ^^
down the fort he had erected and to sign con-
ditions of peace.
But a change came over the state of affairs in
Hungary which was speedily felt in Dalmatia. In
1342 Charles Bobert died and was succeeded by
his son Lewis, then a youth only of sixteen years,
of this author now fails us. Its value consists in the fact that
Micha was an eyewitness of the events he naiTates.
^ By the conditions of the alliance in 1332 Nelij)tio was to
defend the cities if attacked, and they were to supply when called
upon a contingent of 400 men, 100 fi'om Spalato, 140 from
Trail, and 160 from Sebenico. Neliptio was to lead in jierson,
the object was to be approved by the towns, and no hostilities
were to be committed against the King of Hungary on one side,
or the subjects of Venice on the othei\
Ch. I.] History of Dahnatia. 93
who soon gave promise of his future greatness.
During his long reign of forty years he raised
Hungary to a higher place among European
powers than it had ever before occupied ; to his
hereditary kingdom he added, in 1370, that of
Poland which was settled on him by his maternal
uncle Casimir III ; the princes of Moldavia,
Wallachia, Bulgaria, and Bosnia were forced to
submit to his arms ; the Venetians were driven
out of Dalmatia ; and for a short time the king-
dom of Naples, which he invaded to punish the
murder of his brother Andrew, was at his feet, and
governed by his officers.
Charles Robert, disappointed by his uncle Alliance of
Robert I. in obtaining the kingdom of Naples for with
himself, had married his second son Andi^ew^ to ^^'^^'
Giovanna, the grand-daughter of Robert, and
hen-ess to his throne. Robert died in 1342, a few
months after Charles Robert of Hungary, and the
youthful Giovanna succeeded at the age of six-
teen, her husband being of the same age as
herself. The fii^st object of Lewis, who looked to
his connexion with the kingdom of Naples for
support in the vast schemes that were already
working in his mind, was to obtain from the Pope,
Naples being a fief of the church, the coronation
and investiture of his brother Andrew not as
consort of Giovanna iDut as heir of Carlo Martello
^ Id 1333, July. Vid. Gianuone, lib. xxii. c. iii. The
prince and priucess were both seven years old.
94 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i.
his grandfather ^ and after long negotiations at
the Papal court at Avignon his ambassadors
succeeded in their object, though, according to
Boccaccio, not without great difficulty.
^ This object had at first occupied the attention
of Lewis to the exclusion of the affairs of Dalmatia
and Croatia, but his next care was to restore
order and reestablish his authority in those pro-
vinces. Neliptio was dead, but his fortress of
Knin was held by his widow Vladislava for her
infant son John, whom many of the Croatian
counts encouraged to resist and defy the royal
A.D. 1345. summons to surrender. Lewis however brought a
vances into forco into Dalmatia which overawed all opposition
except on the part of those who were allied with
the maritime cities and the Venetians, and with
the exception of Paul count of Ostrovizza, and
Mladin III count of Scardona and Clissa, all the
other counts of Croatia and Dalmatia laid the
keys of their castles at the king's feet ^. Having
no fleet, Lewis was at present unable to attack
^ Giannone, Historia di Napoli, lib. xxiii. Vid. Table of
Kings of Hungary, infra.
^ The local historians of the succeeding events are the authors
of the ' Summa Uistoriarum Tabula a Cutheis de gcstis civimn
Spalatinoruin,' &c., and of the ' Ohsidionis ladrensis Jibri duo!
Buth are edited by Lucio and appended to his edition of 1668.
Of the latter work he says it is a ' manuscripta historia a
religioso quopiam viro qui interfuit conscrijita, ut ex geuere
quo utitur orationis facile intelligi potest.' Its style is exe-
crable and its matter often obscure.
^ Obsid. ladr., lib. i. ch. vii.
Cn. I.] History of Dalmatia. 95
the cities of the coast or meddle \vith the Croa-
tian counts whom they supported.
The situation was one which caused the Yene- Alarm of
tians grave anxiety. The alliance of Hungary and aiiiauce
Naples under the rule of two brothers, both Hungary
young and ambitious \ was the last political com- Naples,
bination the Venetians would have desu-ed. Hun-
gary was powerful, wealthy, and warlike, her land
forces were superior to any the Venetians could
oppose to them, her strength was shortly to be
increased by the union of Poland under the same
crown, the patriarch of Aquileja was her ally, and
so were the Anconitans, the hated rivals of the
Kepublic. Naples possessed a fleet in the Tyi--
rhene sea ; should the two powers combine to
attack Dalmatia by land and sea the Venetians
could not defend it ; and with both shores of
the Adi'iatic in the possession of her enemies
the maritime dominion of Venice would pass
into other hands. Everything now depended on
the fidelity of the maritime towns, and in par-
ticular of Zara, especially since by the terms of
her ancient privileges, confirmed by the late com- a.d. 1345.
pact, no Venetian garrison could be placed within
the walls. About Spalato Trali and Sebenico
the Venetians felt less anxiety, for they were sur-
rounded by the territory of the counts of Bribir,
who were still resisting the king and imploring
* So says Lucio, Lut in fact, if Giannoiie may Le believed,
Andrew had noue of the spirit of his elder brother, but was
' duto air ozio.'
96 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. t.
A.D. 1345. the aid of the Venetians. But Nona and Zara
were enclosed by the territory of the counts of
Corbavia and Knin, who had made their submis-
sion to Lewis, and they had to be carefully
watched. Nona made no objection to receive a
garrison, and was strongly fortified and well
manned, but experience of the jealous temper of
the Zaratini warned the Venetians that any pro-
posal to place troops there would be resented as
an invasion of the ancient privileges and probably
provoke the very mischief that it was intended to
avoid.
Prosperous It migfht be thouofht that interest would have
condition . . . .
of Zara attached the maritime cities to the rule of a com-
netianruie. mercial and highly civilized people speaking the
same tongue and living by the same pursuits
rather than that of a feudal monarch and an alien
people in a lower grade of civilization than them-
selves, especially since they had flourished under
Venetian protection as they had never done since
the days of the Roman empu^e. The Zaratini
elected then- own count, had the custody of their
city without the presence of any foreign garrison,
governed themselves by their own laws and
customs, and contracted alliances with the neigh-
bouring Croatian counts, like the other maritime
cities, with the approval of Venice ; they ex-
tended their commerce into the Tyrrhene sea
as far as Sardinia and Catalonia, two galleys
lay in their arsenal, their harbour was thronged
with craft of all sizes, and the numbers and
Cii. I] History of Dalmaita. 97
wealth of their population were largely on the
increase '.
But the Zaratini had not forgotten or forgiven Reasons for
the loss of the islands of Srimaz Zuri and Jarte ofZaiatini
which they had snatched from the Sebenzani in Venice.
1323, when that people were at war with Trail,
and which in 1324, after Sebenico like themselves
had accepted the Venetian dominion, the Vene-
tians had compelled them to restore '^. When the
Venetians declared war against Neliptio the Za-
ratini did the same, but refused to send troops
across their frontier ; when requested by Lewis to
send galleys and boats to Segna to convey his
mother the elder queen Elizabeth to Apulia, they
did so without any previous communication with
Venice ; and when he advanced with his army
into the country they sent three envoys to meet
him, who came back however without effecting
their purpose, for one of the envoys was a 'tyrant-
hater,' and delayed his companions, and w^hile
they were on the road the king departed for
Hungary ^.
The news of this abortive mission however September,
A.D. 1345.
' Luc. lib. iv. c. XV. p. 217-218.
' Luc. iv. XV. p. 219. He gives the formal pleadings of
the Zaratini when summoned to meet the plaintiffs in the
chancery at Venice. They amount to a denial of the juris-
diction of the Venetians, ' quod Commune ladrae debet habere
unum Comitem qui sit de majori consilio Civitatis Ven. qui
cum tribus ludicibus roget et judicet praedictos ladratinos ut
in pactis plciiius continetur, cujus rei causa ex pactorum forma
nou possumus nee debemus coram vobis ad judicium citari.'
' Obsid. ladr. lib. i. c. vii.
VUL. I. H
98 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. I.
Fourth decided the Venetians to anticipate the open re-
revolt of . ^ . . ,
Zara from belUon 01 the Zaratini ; the port was blockaded
A.D. 1345. by a fleet under Pietro di Canal, and the tem-
porizing overtures of the citizens were met by a
stern demand for unqualified submission. Petitions
sent secretly from the citizens to implore the aid
of Lewis and that of his brother Andrew king of
Naples were favourably entertained by both
monarchs. Andrew received the envoys on the
17th September^, and promised his support, and
on the 8th of the same month letters arrived from
Lewis announcing his approach with an army to
their relief.
The Hun- But it was not destined that any help should
garians at
Naples, reach them from Naples, for the day after his
interview with their envoys Andrew was assassi-
nated, and there was an end of the hopes and
fears founded on the alliance of the two kingdoms
of Hungary and Naples.
When Charles Robert of Hungary had brought
his son Andrew, then a child of seven years of age,
to Naj)les to be married to Giovanna, he had left
with him as his tutor and governor one Fra Roberto,
a Hungarian monk, under whose charge the prince
grew up, and whose influence over the easy temper
of his pu^Dil became absolute. At the time of
their accession the queen and her consort were
but sixteen years old, and Fra Roberto contrived
to get all the power of the government into the
hands of the Hungarian party which surrounded
^ Obsicl. ladr. lib. i. c. xix., xxiv.
Cii. I.] History of Dalmatia. 99
the person of the kingr. One by one the ex- Discontent
penenced councillors 01 Kobert i were dismissed tuiis with
and their posts filled by Hungarians, and the garians.
Neapolitans saw with growing discontent and
repugnance that then* queen was queen merely in
name, and in reality the prisoner of these ' barba-
rians,' in whose hands her husband was as much
a puppet as herself. The insolence of the Hun-
garians and the careless indifference of Andi-ew
provoked some of the more ardent spirits among
the discontented Neapolitans to form a conspiracy,
and they were encouraged by Carlo duke of
Durazzo, who had married the queen's sister and
was next in order of succession to the throne.
The news that Lewis had procured a bull for the
coronation of Andi^ew not as consort but as legiti-
mate king of Naples precipitated theii* plans, and
on the night of September 18, while the Hun- Murder of
Andrew,
garians were stupid with di-ink and buried in Sept. 18,
sleep, Andrew was waylaid as he left the queen's
apaitments in the castle of A versa, a noose was
' With Costanzi and the Neapolitan historians the Hun-
garians are always barbarians, and we hear enough of their
insolence, drunkenness, and ' barhari costuiui.' There is a letter
of Petrarch extant describing his interview with Fi-a Roberto.
He says, 'Oh infaniia del luondo, die mostro! . . . un auimale
orrendo coi piedi scalzi, col capo scoverto, corto di persona,
marcio di tenij)0, gros^o di Hanchi, coi jjanni logori e strac-
ciati per mostrar a studio parte dello carne, non solo dis-
prezzare le supplichc de' tuoi cittadini, ma con grandissima
insolenza, come dalle torre della sua fnita santita, non fare nullo
conto della imbasciata d' un Papa.' All the rest of tiie Hun-
garian ministry, he goes on to say, are like their chief, whom
he calls a ' crudele ed atroce bestia.'
11 2
lOO History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i.
A.D. 1345. thrown round his neck, and he was strangled and
his body thrown out of the window. A few ob-
scure victims were selected for punishment, but
though a papal bull was launched against the
principal offenders their rank and power pre-
vented any measures being taken against them.
Their impunity excited suspicion ; it w^as whis-
pered that Giovanna herself had been privy to
the crime, and Lewis wrote to her accusing her
of her husband's death, and threatening speedy
vengeance ^ .
A.w- 1345- Meanwhile the sieare of Zara was pressed by
Siege of ^ ^ ^ ...
Zara by the the Venetians. Within the city opinion was
Venetians. -,••-,-,
divided : the populace, who were sailors and sea-
faring folk to whom Venetian rule was not un-
welcome, were willing to come to terms, while the
upper classes were inclined to the Hungarian
alliance and determined to hold out ; but the
stern demand of the Venetian commander that
the city should be surrendered to his discretion
and the walls thrown down united all classes in a
policy of resistance ; they raised the royal stan-
dard of Lewis theii' ' natural lord and master ' and
exerted themselves to the utmost to put the city
into a good state of defence. By sea the Venetian
admiral Jacopo Ciurani blockaded them with a
powerful fleet, in which were included galleys
' Giannone, lib. xxiii. A contemporary account of the
murder of Andrew is given by Domeiiico di Gravina, who
writes as a partisan of the Hungarians and au enemy of the
queen. Muratoii, vol. xii. p. 560.
Cm. I.] History of Dahnatia. loi
from Ragiisa Spalato Arbe and Trail, and
smaller vessels from the other states accordlnfj to
their ability ; the land forces, amounting to more
than 16,000 men', were commanded by Marco
Giustiniani, who entrenched himself within a
stockade or bastide 200 paces long and 100 wide
strengthened with thirty-four towers, leaning on
the sea to the east of the city so as to communi-
cate with the fleet, and commanding the isthmus
which joins the city to the mainland. The object
of this entrenchment was to resist the threatened
attack of the king of Hungary, whose army was
on its way to raise the siege. The winter was
consumed in small engagements with varying
success, and conducted with much bitterness on
both sides, no quarter being given. In January January,
the Venetians took the fort of St. Damiano on the
island opposite Zara, and bursting the chain -
forced their way into the harbour. In May they
made an unsuccessful assault on the city, and in J"ne,i346.
June Lewis with an army of 100,000 men of of Lewis to
various nationalities ^ encamped at Semelnich Zara.
seven miles from the city. A deputation of the
citizens laid the keys at his feet, to whom he
swore that he would either deliver them from the
* 01)i-i(l. ladr. lib. ii. c. xii.
' The construction of the cliain is described, Obsid. ladr.
lib. i. e. xix, ' quamdara cathenani mirae grassitiei, ex tredecim
tignis ad invicem ferro connrxis ac confibulatis.'
' ' Ungari, Croati, Bognasclii, Pliylis-tei, Cuinani, Boemi, et
Teiitonici seu Alenianici, et aliae plures geutes.' Obsid. ladr.
lib. ii. c. xi.
I02
History of Dahnatia.
[Ch. I.
July I,
1346.
Defeat of
Hun-
garians.
Venetians or leave his bones at Ti^Yd^"". While
there remained an enemy on their territory he
declined to enter the city, but with an escort of
2000 men he approached within sight of the walls
amid the ringing of bells and shouts of the popu-
lace.
Saturday, July 1 2, was fixed for an assault on
the Venetian bastide, and as the King had no
military engines he borrowed some from the city.
But his army was better qualified to meet an
enemy in the field than to attack a fortress, and
there was not space for more than a small propor-
tion of them to come into action. Some of his
miscellaneous host, moreover, were suspected of
friendly relations with the Venetians, and the
Ban of Bosnia, with his forces, remained an in-
active spectator of the fray^. The Venetians were
entirely successful, the assault was repelled, the
engines of the assailants were destroyed and
burned, and the Zaratini, on whom the brunt of
the conflict had fallen, were driven back to their
walls exclaiming against the treachery of their
allies.
^ 'Non semel immo saepe et crebrius cum juramento affirmasse
visus est potius suum velle corpus ladrae condere sacrofago
quam constantissimos ladertinos velle desolates relinquere.'
Obsid. ladr. ii c. ix.
"^ Obsid. ladi-. lib. ii. c. xii, 'die qui Saturno est dedieatus.'
Elsewhere the reverend author enlivens his narrative by
such expressions as ' existente sole immediate subsequentis
diei in medio polo,' or better still ' dum Titan tertiarum hora
prosignabat.'
' Obsid. ladr. Ill), ii. c. xii.
Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 103
On the following day Lewis burned his remain- Julys,
ing engines, and the day after, July 3, broke upiietreatof
his cam J) and beat a retreat, which the Venetian
historians magnify into a flight, to Vrana and
thence back into Hungary ^
The Zaratini, thus abandoned to their fate, im-
plored the king at all events to make their peace
with the Venetians before forsaking them, but his
proposals were naturally received by the Signory
with contempt. Tumults arose in the city, the a.d. 1346.
populace being as before for surrender, the nobles the
for resistance. Meanwhile the sieere was viofor-
"&"
ously pressed, and the castle of S. Michele on the
island of Ugliano was taken or betrayed. A
worse enemy soon began to make its impression
on the resolution of the citizens ; twenty-eight
thousand souls, natives and refugees from the sur-
rounding territory, were cooped up within the
walls, of whom only six thousand were capable
of bearing arms, and the ravages of famine began
to drive the populace to desperation. At last in
^ Carcsiniis (Murat. xii.) says, 'multisque ex Hungaris vilis-
sime iuterfectis.' I have found no aiitliority for the defeat of
Lewis with a loss of 6000 killed and many more wounded, of
which Sir Gardner "Wilkinson speaks, vol. ii.p. 272. The author of
the Ohsid. ladr. Fays the Zaratini were left unsupported while
the Hungarian army stood and looked on, ' lucide conspicit
Rex, et tota ejus turba, nemini imperat ex suis illis fidelibus
ladertinis guttam suffragii jiraestare, speculatur universus exer-
citus armis fulgidis decoratus,' lib. ii. c. xii. Lucio says that
* Rex nullo Venetis illato damno, nullo subsidio Civitati prac-
stito, raultitudine sua gravatus, fugato similis intra biduuni
recesserit ; ita ut exinde Veneti Regem fugisse sciibant.' De
Regn. lib. iv. c. xv. p. 225.
I04 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. I.
December it was decided to send an embassy to
Venice, and kneeling before the Doge and Signory
Surrender the envoys made their unconditional submission.
i)ec.*2^i', The gates were opened, the Venetian captains
^^^ ' with their forces entered the city, and the stan-
dard of S. Mark was raised in the place of that
of the Hungarian king.
The conditions imposed on the city were more
favourable than might have been expected. With
the death of Andrew and the rupture between
Naples and Hungary one source of danger to the
Republic had been removed, and as the Venetians
might now hope to retain their hold on Dalmatia
they no longer desired to dismantle the fortified
Favour- towus. Zara therefore retained her walls, but the
ditions citizeus Were disarmed, and fifty of the nobles
Venice. ^ Were scut as hostages to Venice. A garrison of 400
foot and 200 horse was placed in the castle, Marco
Giustiniani was appointed count, with Marino
Superanzio and Jacopo Delfin for his councillors,
and the island of Pago was taken from the terri-
tory of Zara, and made the seat of a Venetian
count. In other respects the Zaratini were left
in enjoyment of their ancient privileges. The siege
had lasted sixteen months, and cost Venice from
700,000 to 1,000,000 ducats ^
A variety of circumstances had combined to
^ Chi'on. Venet. cited by Lucio, iv. c. xv. p. 224. ' Vojo che se
sapia che 11a dita Zara chostava al Chomuu de Y*. due. 40 fina
60 millia al mexe,' &c. Cortusii says one million. Sir G. Wil-
kinson says three millions, but gives no authority.
Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. T05
reduce this formidable expedition of Lewis to a Reasons
mere military parade. The Venetian stockade of Hun-
could only be taken by regular siege operations, ^*"*°^'
and even then with difficulty, as the Venetians
had command of the sea. But Lewis had neither
navy nor siege train, and the Hungarians were
not expert in siege operations, while the Venetians
were famous for their skill both in attacking and
defending fortresses. Lewis had also to reckon with
the disaffection of many of the Croatian counts ;
he could not expect those whom he had subdued
in 1 345 ^ to be very zealous adherents, and
Paul count of Ostrovizza and Mladin count of
Scardona and Clissa still held to their alliance
with the Venetians, and had not joined his army
at all. The abstention of the greater part of the
royal army from taking part in the battle of
July ist is ascribed by the author, who was an
eye-witness of the siege, to the influence of the
Croatian leaders, and especially that of the
Voyvode Laccohovich -, but it is possible that
Lewis himself may have had his own reasons for
not pressing it too vigorously. He was then Designs of
meditating an expedition to Naples to avenge the Naples.
murder of his brother and claim the king^dom for
himself as the heir of Carlo Martello his grand-
^ Vid. sup. p. 94.
^ ' Et nisi hoc fraudulentum perdimentum tunc per illos Ecgis
Barones et praecipue per Voyvodam Laccohovich exactum
fuisset sexta quidem hora ipsius diei non consummasset quod
ipsa bastida ac combusta esset et in manus hostium tradita.'
Obsid. liidr. lib. ii. c. xii.
io6 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. I.
father, and it rested with the Venetians as masters
of the sea to prevent or permit the passage of his
army across the Adriatic. It was hinted to him
that if the Venetians were not interfered with at
Zara no opposition would be offered by them to
the passage of his army into Apuha, and this
possibly outweighed the obligations under which
he lay towards the Zaratini ^.
December, Lcwis, liowcver, was uuable to persuade either
A.D. 1347. ... .
the Genoese or the Sicilians to transport his army,
and he finally mvaded ' the Kingdom ' by land.
.Tan. 17, On Jan. 17, 1348, he reached Aversa where he
Entry of was met by the majority of the Neapolitan nobles.
Naples. The queen, with her second husband, had fled to
Avignon, and no resistance was offered by the
people. Passing with his army before the castle
where his brother had been murdered, he halted,
and calling the duke of Durazzo before him asked
from which window his brother had been thrown.
The duke denied all knowledge of the circum-
stances, but his complicity was proved by the
production of a fatal letter in his own handwriting,
and he was immediately beheaded and his body
thrown from the same window whence the un-
happy Andrew had been precipitated^. Summary
justice thus performed, and an inconvenient rival
^ So Caroldus, cited by Luc. iv. c. xv. p. 223.
^ Carlo, Duke of Durazzo, had added to his other offences
that of marrying Maria, the sister of Giovanna, who had been
destined for Stephen, a younger brother of Lewis. This mar-
riage, in case Giovanna left no children, diverted the succession
from the Hungarian line.
Ch. I] History of Dalmatia. 107
removed, Lewis advanced to Naples, which he
entered w^earing his hehnet, preceded by a black
standard painted \\'\\\\ the figure of a strangled
king, and receiving in grim silence the addresses
of the trembling citizens. Many of the barons
were thrown into prison, the young prince Caro-
berto, son of Andrew and Giovanna, was sent into
Hungary to be educated by his grandmother, and
Hungarian ofiicers were appointed to the principal
posts in the government.
Lewis himself, after four months, embarked on May, 1348.
a ' bireme ' at Barletta, and staying a few days at ofTewiT^
Vrana on his way northwards returned to Hun- Naples.
gary. His departure was the signal for the re-
\aval of the party of Giovanna. The arguments
of the queen, seconded by the donation or sale on
easy terms to the church of the city of Avignon,
had convinced the Pope that she was innocent of
the murder of her first husband, and the barons
of her kingdom, disgusted with the rule of the
Hungarians w^hom they regarded as barbarians,
readily accepted the Papal verdict as sufiScient
authority for taking arms on her behalf. Giovanna Return of
and her husband landed at Naples where they
were received enthusiastically, and hostilities were
at once begun.
Meanwhile the Venetians had offered Lewis Autr. 5,
terms of peace on condition that he resigned his Eight
pretensions in Dalmatia. He had at first refused peace
to listen, but the news that reached him from venice"iui
Naples, the necessity of reinforcing his army there, ^""»'^'"y-
io8 History of Dabnatia. [Ch. I.
and the preparations of the Venetians to intercept
his transports made him change his mind, and he
consented to make jDcace for a term of eight years.
In 1 349 the young prince Caroberto died in Hun-
gary. Lewis now hoj^ed for his own investiture
by the Pope, and as this was refused he continued
the war and recovered all the kingdom except
A.D. 1351. Naples and Aversa. But when at last the latter
Lewis re- -■•
tires from placc was Surrendered his forces were exhausted
Naples. ■*■
and he was glad to treat for peace, and professing
himself ready to accej^t the Pope's decision that
Giovanna was innocent of his brother s death, he
vacated the kingdom in 1351.
A.D. 1348. The year in which peace was si2:ned between
The Great , -^ f °
Plague. Venice and Hungary is that of the great plague
which swept across Europe desolating whole coun-
tries and leaving famine and ruin in its track.
Its approach was heralded by a dreadful earth-
quake, and, if the historian of Spalato^ may be
credited, by an eclipse, a comet, and divers portents
such as the appearance of demons and even of the
three furies Alecto Tisiphone and Megaera from
the Stygian pool, at whose aspect men lost their
tongues and ofttimes their wits, stories which
serve to show the terror excited by the visitation.
At Ragusa 1 1 ,000 died of it ; at Florence, where it
found a historian in Boccaccio, the deaths amounted
to 600 a day ; at Venice half the population was
swept away ; and in England, whither the ' black
^ Hist, a Cutheis, c. i. The plague at Spalato burst out ou
Dec. 25, 1348.
Ch. I.] History of Dabnatia. 109
death ' in time found its way, it destroyed in its
repeated visitations more than half the population
of the kingdom.
During this awful calamity arms were by com- a.d. 1351.
mon consent laid aside, but no sooner did it abate between
than the smothered quarrel of the Genoese and Genoa.
Venetians burst out into flame. Nicolo Pisani,
defeated in the Bosphorus, retrieved his laurels
near Sardinia ; but the Genoese managed to equip a.d. 1353.
a new fleet to replace that which Pisani had
nearly destroyed, and, dexterously eluding the
Venetian cruisers, their admu-al Paganino Doria
ravaofed the coast of Dalmatia and Istria. The
town of Lesina was sacked, Pola was nearly a.d. 1354.
reduced to ruins, Parenzo was attacked and and istria
plundered, and these reverses so afflicted Andrea by the
Dandolo the Dog-e and chronicler of Venice as to
cause his death. It was of importance to the
Genoese to secure the alliance of the Hungarians
that they might victual their fleet froni the
Croatian shore, and they tried to induce Lewis to
ally himself with them and attack the Venetians
by land while they did so by sea. Lewis however
confined himself to a demand for the restitution of
the Dalmatian cities which the Venetians of
course refused, but which formed a serious addi-
tion to their difl&culties. They strengthened their
fortifications in Dalmatia, negotiated with the
king of Servia for the purchase of Scardona and
Clissa, which Lelca the widow of Mladin had given
him to prevent tlieir falling into the hands of the
no History of Dalmatia. [Ch. I.
Hungarians, and induced the Emperor to dissuade
the king of Hungary from breaking the peace he
had agfreed to. The successor of Dandolo was
Marino Fahero, and his accession was followed by
the annihilation of the Venetian fleet under
Nicolo Pisani by the Genoese under Paganino
AD. 1355- Doria. Disaster followed disaster ; the Pepublic
was convulsed by the conspiracy and punishment
of Marino Faliero, and the &st object of the
succeeding Doge, Giovanni Gradenigo, was to put
June I, an end to the war. Fortunately he succeeded in
135 5*
Peace concludiug a peace with the Genoese and the
between •! 1 • n •
Venice and duko of Milan theiT ally m 1355 before he had a
fresh and still more formidable enemy on his
hands.
Renewal of The term of the eie^ht years' peace with the
war with . o ^ i ^
Hungary. Hungarians was now at hand, and Lewis refused
to listen to any proposals for its continuance.
Allying himself with the patriarch of Aquileia and
Francesco Carrara of Padua, both natural foes of
the Republic, he invaded the marches of Treviso,
while the Ban of Bosnia by his orders ravaged
Dalmatia. The territories of Nona Zara and
the other towns of Dalmatia and Istria were
wasted, the peojDle were driven within the walls,
all cultivation of the soil was prevented, the sea
was infested by pirates, and the inhabitants were
Aug. 26, reduced to the greatest straits. A fresh em-
bassy from the Venetians offered to restore Zara
to her former liberty, to restore certain places in
Slavonia to the Hungarians, to pay an annual
Ch. I.] History of Dahiatia. 1 1 1
tribute for the rest, and an indemnity for the
expenses of the war. Lewis however would Hsten
neither to the Venetians nor to his own councillors
who urged hmi to consent to these proposals. A
third offer by the Venetians to surrender all the
rest if Zara alone were left to them had the effect
of causing Tiuli and Spalato to open their gates to
the Hungarians in order to gain the credit of a
voluntary surrender. On July 8, ItS7) the a.d. 1357.
Venetian garrison and count of Spalato were matian
citiGs sub"
surprised in their sleep and disarmed, and the mit to
soldiers shut up in various churches and crypts ; "°^'^
at Trau the citizens shut their gates on their
podestil who had gone out to a neighbouring
church, whereupon he made his way to Spalato
only to find himself a prisoner with his colleague.
Both counts were treated honourably, and con-
veyed to Venice at the expense of the Spalatini,
and the Ban was invited to take possession of the
cities in the name of his master ^
The Venetians tried to rouse the remaining
Dalmatians to jom them in recovering the revolted
cities, but the hardships they had suffered from
the ravages of the enemy and the insolence of
the Venetian soldiery^ outweighed any other
* Tabula a Cutheis, ch. iii.
* ' Spalat. vero non valentes ulterius tauta mala et damna
sustinere et pati a gente Uiigara . . . delibuTaveruut iuter se
insimul cum Trag. ut declinax'ent a domiuio Veu. et rever-
terentur ad domiuium naturale et pristiuum Ung. . . . Postea
per aliquot dies omnes Civ. Dalm. simili modo rebcllaverunt
a Ven. putautes quod uou esset bouuiu statum ipsorum sub
1 1 2 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i.
considerations. Sebenico sent envoys to make her
submission to the Ban who was engaged in
besieging Nona. The islanders of Brazza declared
for Hungary ; Lesina which held out for Venice
was invaded and sacked by the men of Almissa
Trail and Spalato in the fervour of their conver-
sion to the Hungarian cause ; and the abbot of
Sept. 17, g^ Michele treacherously opened the g-ates of Zara
1357- . J r &^
and admitted the German mercenaries of Lewis
who after some severe fighting made themselves
masters of all but the castle. Nona and Scardona
still held out, but Nona was starved into surrender
after the besieged had eaten their last horse.
Lewis himself came to Zara to press the siege of
the citadel, but before it was taken the Venetians
found it unpossible to continue the contest, and a
peace was agreed to by which Lewis gained every-
Peace of thinff he had contended for. The Venetians
Zara, Feb. • ^ ^^ ^ - t-v i • c
18, 1358. resigned all clarni to Dalmatia from half-way up
Loss of . .
Dalmatia the Quamero to Hurazzo ^ and ' in f articular the
tians. Cities of Noua Zara Scardona Sebenico Traii
Spalato and Ragusa on the mainland, also these
cities luith their adjacent territories, viz. Cherso
Veglia Arhe Pago Brazza Lesina Curzola, with
their islands,' and they agreed that the Doge
should drop the title of Duke of Dalmatia, while
dominio Venet. jam in fastidium efifecti eraiit Dalmatinis
Veneti propter ipsorum stipendiaries et Soldatos.' Tab. a
Cutheis, c. iii.
^ In the words of the treaty, 'renunciamus . . . toti Dal-
matiae a medietate scilicet guarnarii usque ad confines Duracii.'
Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 113
on the other hand the king was to restore to the
Kepublic his conquests in the Trevisan and Istria.
An amnesty was to be proclaimed for the adhe-
rents of either side, the respective territories were
to be transferred within twenty-two days, and a
special provision was made for the repression of
piracy by both parties ^ Instructions were sent
to the Venetian counts throughout Dalmatia to
surrender their charge, and thus the Kepublic
ceased to have a footing on the eastern side of
the Adriatic^.
Before pursuing the history of the fifty or sixty Reasons for
years that elapsed before Dalmatia passed once tain aUe-
more and finally out of the power of the Hun- the Dai-
garians into that of the Venetians, it will be
^ The text of the treaty is given by Lucio, lib. iv. ch. xvii.
p. 235. It will be observed by those who argue for the per-
petual independence of Eagusa, that no distinction is made
between that city and the others which were subject to Venice,
But vid. History of Eagusa, infra, chapter xix.
- ' ... el castello de Zara in lo qual iera stado f Andi'ea Zane
Cap. e mo jera Cap. Piero Badoer, e Scardona della qual se
haveva dominio fo messa in le man del Ee de Ongaria, ajn-esso
fo scritto a f lacomo Corner Conte de Arbe, e f lacomo Ziuran
Conte de Pago, e f Nicolo Corner Conte de Cherso e Ossero,
e f Nicolo Corner Conte de Liesina, e a f . . . Zuzi Conte de
Cursola, e a f Marco Sanudo Conte di Eagusi die de li detti
luoghi se dovesse remover con tutta la famegia e vegnir k
Venexia e de quelli plui non se impazar.' Cliron. Ven. in
Lucio, p. 235.
Cattaro threw herself on the protection of Lewis in 1370, the
Servian kingdom having sunk to so low an ebb as to be unable
to protect her from the lords of Zenta.
VOL. I. I
1 14 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i.
Policy of useful to pause and consider how these repeated
the Dalma- ■"■
tian cities, changos of master were regarded by the Dahiiatian
cities, and what occasioned the apparent fickleness
with which they so readily transferred their alle-
giance from one side to the other. The causes
which led to the successive rebellions of the
Zaratini, will throw light on the revolutions
that occurred in the other cities as well. Their
first revolt in 1 180 was provoked by the subjection
of their archbishop to the Venetian primate ; the
causes of the second in 1242 are obscure, but may
no doubt be found in the close subjection in which
they were held since the conquest of 1202 ; then'
third revolt in 1 3 1 1 was made at the mstigation
of the counts of Bribir, with the prospect of
regainmg under Hungarian rule those ancient
privileges of which since their j)revious outbreaks
the Venetians had deprived them ; and their
fourth in 1345 was occasioned by h'ritation at the
loss of the islands which the Venetians compelled
them to restore to the Sebenzani. In all these
cases the offence was given by interference either
with their municipal autonomy and independence,
or with the territorial rights of the commune.
Autonomy Tlic real obiect of the policy of Zara and every
their real J 1 ^ J
desire. town of the Dalmatian pale, was to be alloM^ed to
live under its own laws, to choose its own magis-
trates, to govern itself on its ancient democratic
basis, and to regulate its own internal aftairs
without interference from any superior authority.
These privileges were secured to the citizens by
Ch. I.] Histoj-y of Daliiiatia. i 15
the ancient chai'ters, which were confirmed from Nature of
. their an-
tmie to tmie by the successive rulers under whose cient privi-
dominion they passed. They are all to the same
effect ; the citizens were exempted from tribute ;
they had leave to elect their own count and bishop^
whom tlie suzerain, Hungarian or Venetian, was
to confirm ; they were to use their ancient Roman
laws, and to appoint their own judges ; no alien,
even if he were of the ruling nation, was to reside
within their walls except at their pleasure, a
stipulation by which they were protected against
the intrusion of a foreign garrison ; no castle or
fort was to be built on their ten-itory without
then* leave ; they were not to be called upon to
give hostages ; and no citizen could be cited to
appeal- before any foreign tribunal or before any
judges but those of his own city. So long as these
privileges were respected and they were allowed
to govern themselves in their own way the muni-
cipalities of Dalmatia considered that they were
free 2, and it is in the prospect of better preserving
their freedom and autonomy under the 23rotection
of one ruler or the other that we must seek the
explanation of the readiness wdth which they
' M. Guizot remarks that it was the general characteristic
of Roman municipalities, — of cities properly so called, — that the
clcr<,'y in concert with the people elected the bishop. Hist, of
Civilization in France, Lcct. xvii.
^ ' Suis enim legibus vivcre idem erat quod iutegra libcrtate
frui, nam leges civibus modum vivendi statuentes a cujuslibet
alterius jurisdictione cives txiniebant.' Luc. de Regu. lib. iv.
c. ii. p. 273.
I 2
ii6 Histojy of Dalvtatia. [Ch. i.
turned from Venetian to Hungarian, and from
Hungarian to Venetian, rather than in any prefer-
ence for one over the other.
Their need What the cities really desired was to be left
of protec- •'
tion by a alono and to have as little as possible to do with
great _ ^ ■"•
power. either or any of their powerful and dangerous
neighbours ; but unhappily their weakness and
isolation made them necessarily dependent on that
neighbour who was for the tune being the most
dangerous and powerful. For the cities of Dalma-
tia had no cohesion among themselves ; had they
been able to league themselves together like the
free cities of Lombardy they might perhaps have
defied Croatian, Venetian, and Hungarian ; but
except now and then under the leadership of
Venice the relations of city to city were seldom
amicable and often hostile. Too small to stand
alone they naturally sought the protection of the
most powerful friend they could find, and so long
as then- internal autonomy was respected and their
territorial rights were not infringed they were
willing to serve as allies and to send a contmgent
of ships and men to the forces of the power whose
flag they hoisted.
Difficulty The difiiculty of the position of these maritime
position, cities between the rival powers of Venice and
Hungary was extreme. Their position on the
sea coast, their commercial pursuits by which
they lived, and their possessions on the islands
that lay off" their shores placed them at the
mercy of Venice in time of war, and it was to
Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 1 1 7
Venice that they had to look in time of peace for
security against the piratical Slavs who infested
those seas. On the other hand then- territory on
the mainland, surrounded by the feudal estates
of Slavonic counts, or the lands of Croatian cities
like Nona and Belgrad, was at any time exposed
to be invaded by the Ban to whom they were
seldom able to oppose any adequate resistance.
Their allegiance to one side or the other was
obviously a matter to be decided more by interest
than by aftection, and in time of war when
neither party could protect them against the
other except on his own element their case was
pitiable.
The instincts of race, and the ties of a common Their
language and culture naturally inclined the Latin inciina-
population of the cities towards Italy rather than towards
towards Hungary. Between the Latins and the '^^'
Croatians, in spite of the intermixture that natur-
ally took place during the lapse of centuries, there
was little sympathy. As the toA\ais grew in
wealth and importance, and developed the arts
of civilisation in their midst, the Croatians seemed
to them more and more left behind in compara-
tive barbarism. The municipal governments were
moulded on the model of the towns of Italy;
the chief magistrate or podesta was generally an
Italian ; at Spalato immediately after Coloman's
conquest we find the rector was a Trevisan ; in
1 200 the citizens made an Italian from Perugia
their archbishop : they refused the rectorship of
ii8 History of Dahnatia. [Ch. I.
the city to Reles, duke of Croatia, because they
spurned the idea of being governed by a Slavo-
nian ^ and in 1239 they invited a podesta from
Ancona. It was the same in the other cities, and
even under the tyranny of the Slavonic counts of
Bribir the office of podesta was filled by Italians
generally chosen from the march of Ancona^.
Autocrati- Between the Latins and the Hungarians there
cal govern- ^
menfc of was cvou loss affinity than between them and the
Croatians. From both Latins and Croatians the
Hungarians were aliens in race, language, and
customs. The free democracies of the cities, whose
acts were issued in the name of ' the count with
the judge and the ivhole body of the people^ \ were
unintelligible to them. Monarchical themselves
they treated the Dalmatians autocratically, and
the privileges which the Hungarian kings con-
firmed were in effect often infringed. The Bans,
subservient to the king themselves, loved to lord
it in then' turn over the provincials, and the
privileges of the towns were a constant source of
vexation to the Bans who could not oppress the
citizens as they did the Croatians.
^ ' Detestantes prorsus regimen viri Sclavigenae experiri.'
Thorn. Archie!., c. xxi.
■^ ' Potestates autem, qui ex Marchia Anconitana ut phirimum
voluntate tamen Comitis eligebantur,' &c. Lucio de Regn.
lib. iv. c. xiv. p. 205.
^ A.D. 1 1 74. 'Ego Joannes Spalatensis comes pariter cum
Petro judice, et cum toto ejusdem Civitatis Populo pari vohm-
tate et communi consilio decrevimus,' &c. Luc. lib. iii. c. x.
p. 132, and so passim. Vid. also quotations from statutes of
Ragusa, infra, chapter xix.
Ch. I.] History of Dalvtatia. 119
Tlie Venetians therefore miglit have been ex- character
^ ofVenetian
pected to attract the sympathy and command govem-
the allegiance of the Dalmatians more readily
than the Hungarians. Under the rule of the
Republic the provincials paid no tribute or taxes
beyond the ' strena or strinna ' which perhaps
represented the nominal acknowledgment re-
tained to the Empire in the time of Basil I\ their
ancient constitutions were respected, and they
were treated as allies rather than as subjects^.
The Venetians might have made sure of Dal-
matia had their protection been as powerful by
land as it was by sea. Lucio observes that there
always had been, and M^ere even in his own day,
* two classes of men in the cities of Dalmatia, Twopartiea
especially those of the continent, one living by city,
terrestrial pursuits and industries, the other by
navigation and fisheries ; from which difference
two parties grew up in each state, the landed
party attaching itself to the Croats and Hun-
garians, the maritime party to the Venetians,
and the maritime party prevailed until as time
went on the territory on the mainland increased
in extent, when the landed party either equalled Reason of
111 • • ) rr'i 111 i Hungarian
or overmatched the maritime^, ihe landed party, influence,
whose farms and estates were at the mercy of
the Bans, naturally wished to keep on good terms
with them and the Hungarians, and the frequent
' Vid. supra, p. 23, and Const. Purphyr. ile adm. Imp. c. xxx.
' Lucio, lib. vi. c. ii. p. 275-6.
' Ibid. p. 227.
1 20 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i,
and prolonged absences of many of the maritime
party on trading expeditions threw more power
into the hands of those who were always at home.
It required the tyranny of the counts of Bribir
to unite both parties in opposition to the Croats
and Hungarians and to force them into the arms
of Venice.
A.D. 1358. The rule of Lewis did not give universal satis-
Dalmatia r> • •t^ii- ti-j ji
under lactiou ui JJaimatia, nor did it remove the
Great. grievances which had been felt under the govern-
ment of Venice. Spalato Trail and Sebenico
which had voluntarily surrendered to hun re-
ceived a confirmation of their privileges^ and
liberties, but some jealousy was felt at the same
favour being extended to the other places which
had been taken by force or given up by the
Venetians. The Zaratini alone were excluded
Character froiii the kiiig's liberality ; the island of Pago was
of the rule p 01 •
of Lewis in not restorcd to them, nor those of brimaz and
Zuri which were given to the Sebenzani, nor
were they reinstated in their ancient privileges
of which the Venetians had deprived them, nor
was the castle pulled down as they had hoped it
would have been, but on the contrary it was
garrisoned with Hungarian trooj)S. A new rule
provided an appeal to the king from the decisions
of the judges which was rightly felt to cut at the
^ Vid. text of confirmation of those of Sebenico. Lucio, iv.
xvii. p. 234.
Ch. I.] History of Dahnatia. 121
root of their autonomy \ and the Queen-mother,
EHzabeth ' tlie Elder,' whom Lewis sent into Dal-
matia as regent with plenipotentiary powders, set
herself to work with the barons who were as-
sociated with her to clip and shape all the
customs and privileges of the country to an
uniform pattern, the object of the king being to
obliterate the ancient distinctions of Dalmatian,
Croat, and Serb, and to govern them all by the
same code 2. On one point he was forced to give
way ; the possibility of having the decision of
their municipal courts upset by appeal to the
king made the other privileges w^orthless, and
Lewis was at last obliged to listen to the remon-
strances of the citizens and substitute for an
appeal to himself one to four colleges in Italian
states friendly to himself.
It was not only in these respects that the Abridg-
liberties of the cities suffered under a king accus- privileges
tomed to absolute rule. He interfered with the
election of the counts, refusing to confirm those
chosen by the citizens, and appointing others of
his own choice ; he exempted certain citizens
from the municipal jurisdiction, and imposed heavy-
dues, especially creating the state monopoly of
salt, an abominable institution that has survived
under various governments down to our own day^.
From this monopoly he derived great profit, and
he tried to export salt to Ferrara and Padua,
' Luc. vi. c. ii. p. 276. "^ Luc. v. c. i. p. 238.
^ Luc. vi. c. vi. J). 276.
122 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. I.
but was prevented by the Venetians who had by
treaty with those places a monopoly of theu^ own
in that article.
A.D. 1378. In the deadly struggle between the republics
CMoggia. of Venice and Genoa, which from its principal
incident is known as the War of Chioggia, the
Hungarians with the Carrara lords of Padua
and the patriarch of Aquileia were allied with the
Genoese. In the abasement of Venice and the
destruction of her supremacy in the Adiiatic
Lewis saw his way to form a navy of his own,
and to secure a safe and easy communication
between his Dalmatian conquests and that king-
dom of Naples which still eluded his grasp. This
is not the place to follow the history of that six
years' struggle in which Dalmatia played no part
Dalmatia but that of a sufferer at the hands of the Venetian
Venetians, admiral Vittore Pisani, who made havoc of the
unhappy maritime cities which were now subjects
of the Hungarian enemy. On Aug. 17, 1378, he
sacked Cattaro but spared the citizens and re-
stored the city to them, leaving a garrison in
the castle ; on Oct. 1 7 he sacked and burned
Sebenico, where he also left a garrison ; from
Zara, which he watched with his main force, he
sent on Nov. 7 a detachment to Arbe, whose
citizens, now as always inclined to be loyal to
the Venetians, delivered their keys to the Captain
Ludovico Loredano^ ; and on Nov. 17 Pisani with
^ ' Confestim Arbenses clavibus exliibitis ad suum verum
Ducale Dominium redierunt.' Caresinus in Muratoi'i, vol. xii.
Ch. I.] History of Dalmaiia. 123
the whole fleet moved from Zara to Trail, where
he found seventeen galleys of the Genoese but
was unable either to cut them out or assault the
town.
After the surrender of the Genoese fleet, which a.d. 1380.
from blockading Venice had itself become block-
aded in the lagunes, Arbe was retaken by Maruffb,
who commanded another squadron of the Genoese,
and the Venetians sacked and burned Segna,
recovered Veglia^ and burned Buccari.
When peace was at last restored by the medi- Au^. 8,
at ion of the Duke of Savoy Dalmatia was once Peace of
more ceded to the King of Hungary, and the
reconquests which the Venetians had made were
given back. The Hungarians wei'e prohibited by
the terms of the treaty from trading with ports
north of a line drawn from the point of Istria to
Rimini, and the Venetian triremes were forbidden
to enter any royal port which was closed by a
chain. Such chains were placed at the entrance
of the harbour of Sebenico and many others, as
for instance in the bocche di Cattaro, where the
channel which it closed is still knowTi as ' le
Catene.'
Lewis, in failing health and no longer young, Succession
iTiii ir>i i^*' crowns
was obliged to leave to a more youthiul and of Naples
* ' Galeis inde recedentibus Veglienses laesi fuerunt sed modice
quia statira ad obedientiam devenerunt.' Caresinus.
The islanders generally preferred Venetian rule, having less
to fear from the Hungarian ban than the citizens of the con-
tinental towns.
124 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i.
and Hun- vigorous arm that conquest of the kingdom of
Naples which had been the dream of his hfe, and
to which the acquisition of Dalmatia had been a
stepping stone. For a long while he had been
childless, and had brought up at his court and
destined as his heir the orphan nephew of that
Carlo duke of Durazzo on whom he had wrousfht
such summary vengeance at Aversa. Giovanna
was also childless ; in case of her death her realm
devolved on Lewis as direct heir of Carlo Martello,
and the young Carlo della Pace as he was called
was destined by him to inherit and unite the two
kingdoms of Hungary and Naples. The birth of
his daughter Maria caused Lewis to change his
plans. The crown of Hungary was reserved for
his daughter, and that of Naples for Carlo della
Pace, who was forthwith married to his cousin
Margarita, posthumous daughter of the duke of
Durazzo, so as to unite her claims to the crown of
Najiles with his own.
Charles III In 1 3 76, at the invitation of Urban YI, Lewis
of Naples. r^ ^ '
sent Carlo into Italy to disj^ossess Giovanna, who
had offended the Pope by siding with the anti-
pope. The resistance of Otto her fourth husband
was speedily overcome, and Giovanna surrendered
to her rival, by whom she was imprisoned
A.D. 1 38 2. and shortly afterwards put to death. It is
Giovanna. ^aid that Carlo wrote to Lewis to ask what
he should do with her, and was answered that
her end ought to be the same as that of her
husband Andrew. She was smothered in the
Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 125
castle of Muro in the Basillcata, in the year
I382^ Her murderer succeeded as Charles III
of Naples.
In the same year, on Sept. 12, Lewis died at Sept. 12,
Ternova and was succeeded by his daughter Death of
Maria, then scarcely twelve years old, who was
crowned ' hing ' on the 1 7th of the same month
at Alba Regalis or Stuhlweissenburg^. Elizabeth,
widow of Lewis, known in history as ' the Regency of
,.. 'ii (* !• ii Elizabeth
younger, to distmguish her irom his mother the
Elizabeth ' the elder,' had acted for her husband ° °
during his last illness, and she continued to ad-
minister the kingdom during the minority of her
daughter. At first the reign of the two queens
was undisturbed, but signs of discontent soon
showed themselves. The warlike nobles of Hun-
gary and Croatia despised the government of a
woman, resented the influence of the Palatine
Nicol5 Ban of Gara, and disliked the idea of
subjection to Sigismund of Luxembourg, king of
Bohemia and marquis of Brandenburg, the son
of the Emperor Charles IV, to w^hom Maria was
promised in marriage. A party was formed to
revive the pretensions of Charles III of Naples,
of which the leaders were Paul bishop of Zagabria Conspiracy
^ _ against
or Agram, Stephen vaywode of Transylvania and Maria.
^ Giannone, lib. xxiii. c. 5.
''■ '1382, 17 mens, praesentis D. Maria filia senior antedicti
Regis in Civ. praedicta coronata fuit in Regem.' Mem. Pauli
de Paulo, Patricii Jadrensis. The reader will remember the
' Moriamur pro rege uostro Maria Theresa ' of the Hungarians
in 1 74 1.
126 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i.
his brother, Giovanni Pahsna prior of the Knights
Hospitallers at Vrana, and Horvat ban of Dal-
matia. The suspicions of the queens were
aroused; they went in person to Zara, Palisna
and Horvat were removed from theu^ offices, and
Vrana which had openly revolted was recovered.
On Nov. 4 the queens visited Vrana and after-
A.D. 1384. wards returned to Buda. In the following year
the cons23iracy continued to gain ground. Four
persons whose treason had been discovered were
beheaded in the piazza of Zara in July, fresh
oaths of allegiance to the queens were exacted
from the citizens, and Horvat was sent out of the
way into Italy on pretence of supporting Charles
in his struggle with Lewis of Anjou. This seems
to have been injudicious, for Horvat abused his
opportunity to persuade Charles to undertake the
easy task of dispossessing the youthful queen and
making himself king of Hungary. The bishop of
Zagabria followed with the same request ; Charles
listened eagerly to the proposal, and on Sep. 1 2,
A.D. 1385. 1385 he sailed from Barletta in Apulia with only
Charles III a Small body of adherents, anticipating a welcome
gary. recoption and little opposition. Zara was held by
a Hungarian garrison, and the Dalmatians gener-
ally remained faithful to Maria ; passing them by
therefore, Charles made for Segna, whence he
reached Zagabria six days after leaving Barletta.
Here he stayed some days to issue his procla-
mations, which were highly garnished with
promises of immunities and privileges ; all Hun-
Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 127
gary and Ci'oatia rallied to his standard, the
queens were deserted by nearly everyone but the
Palatine Nicol5, and on the arrival of Charles at
Buda they were kept in an honourable captivity
and obliged to affect submission and compliance.
In one point they had been too quick for their Marriage
. of Maria to
rival ; he had intended to marry Maria to his son sigismund,
Ladislaus, but on the news of his landing Sigis-
mund had been summoned and his marriage with
Maria celebrated before the Neapolitan party
could prevent it, and as Charles approached Buda
Sigismund retired before him into Bohemia.
In the following year, however, by the con- a.d. 1386.
trivance of the Ban Nicolb, Charles was waylaid Murder of
and murdered in the apartments and presence of m.
the two captive queens ^ his Italian suite was
dispersed, and the populace shouted for ' King
Maria,' as loudly as they had a few days before
shouted for her rival.
The rebellion was however continued in Croatia
by Horvat and Palisna, who collected a party to
meet the queens as they were on their way
southwards to reestablish their authority. The
encounter took place ' prope Diacum ' ; the queens
were accompanied apparently only by their ordi-
nary suite- and were uiq)repai'ed ; their followers
^ For further particulars of this affair vid. infra, Novigrad,
chapt. V. The story is given at length by Giannone, lib. xxiv.
c. 2.
* Caresinus, ' Cum Nicolao magno Comite Palatino ct aliqua
Comitiva.' Lucio says, 'solitis Aulicis comitantibus,' lib. v.
c. ii. p. 253.
128 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i.
fought bravely, Nicolo of Gara and Blasio Forgac,
by whose hand Charles had fallen, were killed,
and the queens were taken prisoners and conveyed
Jan. 1387. to the castle of Novigrad near Zara. Here
Elizabeth. Elizabeth ended her days, though whether she
of Maria, was drowued in the Bozota, or dispatched by the
sword, or whether, as some say, she died of grief
remains shrouded in mystery. The heads of
Nicolo and Forgac were sent to feed the ven-
geance of Margarita, the widowed Queen of
Naples, and Maria was reserved to be sent after
them, a living victim on whom a still sweeter
revenge might be taken.
Sigismund, who advanced from Bohemia to the
rescue of his bride, was driven back by the
Croatians, and the case of Maria would have been
desperate but for the assistance of the Venetians,
who though they owed little to her family, saw
probably that in her survival and marriage with
Sigismund lay the strongest barrier against the
union of Naples and Hungary.
Coronation The ambassadors of the Bepublic persuaded
mund. the Hungarian barons to accept Sigismund for
their king, and he was crowned at Alba Begalis
on March 31, 1387. Meanwhile the Venetian
admiral Giov. Barberigo, Captain of the Gulf,
watched Novigrad to prevent the threatened
June 4. abduction of Maria, and their land forces so
1387.
Release of prosscd Palisiia, the prior of Vrana, that he was
obliged to release his captive. On June 4 Maria
was brought to Nona, where she received dele-
Ch. I.] History of Dalviatia. 129
gates from Zara, among whom was Paolo de Paoli,
as he records m his jom^nal^ ; on the 15th she
reached Segna, a feudal j^ossession of the Frangi-
pani counts of Yeglia, who were among her
supporters, where she stayed till July i, and on
the 4th of that month she rejoined her husband
Sicifismund at Zaofabria.
During these disjDutes the Dalmatian cities Attitude of
. .,.,,. theDalma-
remamed quiet, preserving their allegiance to the tian cities.
queen, so far at all events as to take no part with
the Croatian insurrectionists. For the usual
' Regnante Regina Maria ' at the head of their
public acts, the Spalatini, in 1385, substituted
' impedita Reg. Maria ^' nor did they prefix the
name of Sigismund after his coronation until
he was formally associated with Maria on the
throne.
The rebellion however was not yet at an end ; The
O" • 1 f> '1 TT 1 1 rebellion
bigismund sent a lorce to punish Horvat and the continued.
prior Palisna, who invited the assistance of
Tvartko King of Bosnia, and thus brought a new
disputant into the field. Bosnia from being a
banat of the Hungarian crown had, under the
reign and by the permission of Lewis, been ad-
' '1387. Die. 4 men. Juuii de mane Sereniss. rriuceps et
D. nostra naturalis D. Maria E. Ung. liberata fuit a captivitate,
et exivit de Castro Novigrad in quo detineLatur et die Veneris
tequentis ivi ad earn Nonani, et die crastina die Sabbathi
locutus fui ^lajestati suae, et die lunae immediate recessi a Nona
liccntiatus ab ca,' &c. Memorialc Paiili de Paulo, Patritii
Jadrensis.
' Lucio, 11. 253.
VOL. I. K
130 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. T.
vanced to the rank of a tributary kingdom^.
The Ban Stephen Tvartko was cousin to Queen
EHzabeth the younger, and enjoyed the royal
Bosnian favour : and after he had been employed about
kingdom 01 ' 1 1/
Tvartko I. ^j-^g year 1357 to humble the neighbouring king-
dom of Servia or Rascia, he was allowed to
assume the title of King of Rascia and Bosnia^.
His ambition aspu^ed to the dominion of the sea
coast as well, and in the appeal made to him by
the insurrectionary Croatians he saw an oppor-
tunity to attain his object and to shake off what
remained of the Hungarian yoke at the same
time. Advancing into Dalmatia he made himself
A.D. 1389. master of Cattaro Clissa and Almissa, and at-
of°r)ir^ tacked Bagusa and Spalato. Palisna had been
TvSk^o^ diiven back by the Zaratini with the aid of
the count of Segna and Modrussa, and was be-
leaguered in the stronghold of Vrana. Tvartko
raised the siege, captured Nona and Ostrovizza,
and again attacked Spalato Sebenico and Trali.
A.D. 1390. Disappointed in their ajDpeals for aid to Sigis-
mund and Maria, the citizens consented to treat
with the Bosnian king, stipulating only that
time should be allowed for the return of their
messengers from Hungary that they might save
their reputation for fidelity. The time elapsed,
^ Lucio de Eegn. lib. v. p. 256. The assumption of royalty
by Stephen Tvartko was about 1376,
^ He was the first Bosnian prince since Culin (d. 121 6) who
coined money, and his reign marks the high tide of Bosnian
history. That country had never been so great before, and
its decline set in immediately afterwards.
Ch. I.]
History of Dalmatia.
T^I
no help was forthcoming from their liege lords,
and the three cities made their submission to
Tvartko, stipulating, as usual, for a confirmation
of their privileges. The islands of Lesina Brazza
and Curzola admitted his lieutenants, the sea
coast of the ancient duchy of Chelmo was his
by conquest, and Tvartko could now style himself
D. G. Rasciae, Bosniae, Maritimaeque Rex. His ad. 1391.
forces under Palisna repulsed an army of Sigis-
mund which attacked the fortress of Knin, and
Zara and Ragusa alone defied his arms.
In the succeeding year, however, Palisna died ^•^- ^39i-
(l^eb. 16, 1 391); ivai'tko hmiseli died a month Tvartko
later, and his Dalmatian kingdom fell to pieces as of Bosnia,
rapidly as it had been formed. His successor,
Stephen Dabiscia\ had to contest his throne with
* The succession of the Bosnian kings is very obscure. The
list given by Nic. Isthuanfy (de reb. Ungar) is incorrect. The
following table is I hope accurate ; it has been collected from
various sources.
Stephen, Ban of Bosnia, d. 13 10.
I
Stephen
Cotroman,
Ban. d. 1357.
I
Elizabeth,
wife of Lewis
tlie Great
of Hungary.
Wladislav.
I
Steph. Tvartko I,
King of Rascia and Bosnia,
1376. d. 1391.
I
Steph. Tvaktko II,
illefritiniate, disputes throne
with Ostoya, 1396- 1435.
Reigns alone 1435. d. 1443.
~^
Ninoslav.
I
Steph. Dabiscia,
1391. d. 1396.
Steph. Ostota Kbistic,
disputes throne with
Tvartko II. d. 1435.
Catharine, dr. of
Steph. Cosaccia.
= Steph. Thomas Kristic,
1443. Murdered, 1461, by
Stephen Tomasovic, his ilicgitimate son, who was flayed
alive by Mahomet II, 1463.
K 2
132 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i.
a rival, and when this difficulty was overcome
he had enough to do to keep his kingdom against
the Turks, and he resigned the reversion of his
rights in Croatia and Dalmatia to Sigismund
without a struggle, reserving for himself only a
life possession.
A.D. 1395. jj^ \y^Q same year died Maria queen of Hun-
Death of "^ . ^
Maria. gary. The question now arose whether the
Disputes . 1 • 1 c^• • i
about the succossion was vosted m her consort bigismund,
611GC6SS10I1
' or whether it did not pass to Hedwig or Edviga,
queen of Poland, the surviving daughter and sole
descendant of Lewis ; and for a time the acts of
Spalato Sebenico and Trail contain no royal
name at their head, but are issued in the name
solely of the Hectors and Judges \ But Edviga
and Sigismund were not the only claimants of the
throne ; a third pretender was put forward by the
Croatian insurg^eut Croatiaus, whose resistance to the au-
disaiiec- '-'
t^oii- thority of Sigismund had never been overcome.
Their revolt had obviously less to do with the
question of succession than with that of the
dependence or liberty of Croatia. In the rivalry
of Maria and Carlo III the Croat leaders had seen
an opportunity of freeing themselves from the
Hungarians, and by then* alliance with Tvartko
and his conquest of Dalmatia they had partially
succeeded. When the Bosnian power declined
^ '1394, Aug. 14. Spalatenses autem decreverant quod a
morte Tuertichi Regis citra non fiat meutio de aliquo Jtege nee
de cdiquo alio nisi solummodo de lieciorihus et Judicibus,' &c.
Luc. V. iii. p. 258.
Ch. I.] History of Dalniatia. 133
the Croatian leaders looked around for another Preten-
, , , . , T T 1 sions of
ally, and fixed then- eyes on the youno- l.adislaus La.Usiaus
of Naples, son and successor of Charles III, whom p„t for-^"
they invited to revive his father's claims. But JhTcwts.
while Ladislaus hesitated ^ Sigismund acted with
promptitude ; his Ban Nicolb Gara defeated and
slew Horvat, the leader of the rebellious party
since the death of Palisna, and recovered the
maritime cities, and for the next few years Ladis-
laus was too much occupied by domestic dis-
turbances to think of the Hungai^ian succession.
It is time to turn our eyes to a new power that thetuuks.
was steadily making its way towards the Dal-
matian seaboard, and a new danger that threat-
ened not only Hungary but Christendom itself. A.n. 1299.
A century had nearly elapsed since Othman con-
quered Prusa, and the Ottoman Turks first made
their appearance in history. Orchan the son of
Othman achieved the conquest of the Asiatic
provinces of the Empire and the ruin or subjection
of the seven Apostolic churches. The Turks owed
theii' first introduction into Europe to the same
discord among the Christians by which their empire a.d. 131 a.
was in after times cemented, and the Emperor
John Cantacuzene inflicted on the Empire ' its
deep and deadly wound' l)y inviting the aid of
the Ottomans against his ward and rival Jolm
^ ' Bed juvenis, putcruae uccis memor, acceilere verebatur."
Luc. V. iv. p. 259.
134 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i.
Palaeologus. ' Once established in Europe they
speedily overran Thrace, and Amurath I. (Murad)
A.D. 1360. fixed his capital at Adrianople. Postponing the
fate of Constantinople he attacked the kingdoms
of Bulgaria, Servia, Bosnia, and Albania, and from
the hardy youths of those countries whom he
captured and reared in the Moslem faith he
formed the invincible corps of Janizaries. The
crisis, which decided the fate of Christendom in
June 15, the Balkan peninsula, was reached in 1389, when
Battle of" Lazarus Grebelianovich, king of Servia, combined
his forces with those of the kings of Bosnia and
Bulofaria, and encountered Amurath at Kossovo.
Treachery and discord as usual ruined the
Christian cause ; the allied forces were disas-
trously routed ; and though Amurath himself fell
by the hand of a desperate Servian after the
battle was over, the knell of Servian and Bul-
garian liberty was sounded on the fatal field of
Kossovo. Zenta or Montenegro preserved a
doubtful and obscure independence among her
mountams, and from this day her separate history
begins. The Bosnian forces alone escaped the
rout ; they retired in good order from the field,
Defeat of and Tvartko was able again to meet the Turks
Tvlrtkof and to wipe out his defeat by a victory which for
issj. ^°' the time saved his kingdom ^ From this time
^ He reports this triumph to his subjects at Trail on Aug. i,
1389, 'inito cum eis hello die 20 Alensis Junii pi'oxime prae-
teriti, Dei dextera adjutrice et nobis pi'opitia assistente, obtento
penitus cum triumpho campo confliximus, devicimus, et humi
Ch. I] History of Dalniatia.
JD
Servia and Bulgaria sank gradually into the
condition of Tui-kish pi'ovinces ; but it was not
the policy of the Turks to reduce their conquests
instantly to slavery ; Servia was for a tune gov-
erned by despots appointed by the Sultan, and
it was not till 1459 that it was reduced to a mere
province of the Turkish Empire.
After the death of Tvartko a fresh advance of -\°- 139^.
. _ Crusade
the Turks on Bosnia alarmed and united the against the
Turks.
Hungarians Germans and French by a sense of
their common danger. A crusade was preached,
and an army of 100,000 soldiers of the cross as-
sembled under the leadership of Sigismund to
meet Bajazet Ilderim at Nicopol on the Danube. Sept. 18,
The day w^as lost by the rashness of the French Battle of
chivalry, the crusaders were disastrously defeated, ^^°^*^ '
and Sigismund with difficulty escaped by a small
boat down the Danube to the Black Sea, whence
he reached Constantinople, and w^as conveyed by
the Venetians to Bagusa. He passed the winter
at Knin to which place he granted a ' privilege,'
and reached Hungary in the following spring. a.d. 1397.
The invasion of Timour, the defeat of Bajazet
at Angora in 1402, and his captivity and death,
interi-upted the victorious career of the Ottomans
and gave Europe a short breathing space. The
sons of Bajazet were occupied by civil wars, and
the Ottoman Empire was not reunited till the
reign of Amurath H. (1421-1451).
prostravimus interemptos, paucis demum ex ipsis superstitibus
remanentibus.' Luc. v. iii. p. 257.
o
6 History of Dalniatia. [Ch. I.
Preten- Meaiiwhile the Croats continued their re-
Ladisiaus sistanco to Sigismund, and their invitations to
apes, j^gj^^gjg^^g q£ Naples. Ostoja the new king of
Bosnia and the Voyvode Hervoye were di-awn
into the same cause, and the cities were divided
by factions, some favouring Sigismund and some
the Neapohtan pretender. Sigismund had be-
come an ahen in Hungary since his wife's death,
and his reputation had been ruined by the defeat
of Nicopol. Many of the Hungarian nobles were
favourably disposed towards his rival, and for a
short time he was a prisoner in the hands of an
insurrectionary party. In Dalmatia his excessive
taxation had disgusted the cities, especially
Spalato, and Zara had not forgiven him for de-
priving her of her territory on the island of Pago,
to which he had conceded the same liberties which
were enjoyed by the other cities of Dalmatia.
A.D. 1400. Ladislaus had now finally triumphed over Lewis
invades" of Aujou, his rival for the throne of Naples,
^ ^^ ^^' and was free to listen to the overtures of the
Croats. Hervoye was constituted his lieutenant
and in his name confirmed the privileges of the
A.D. 1 401. Dalmatian cities. His admiral Aloysio Alde-
marisco arrived with a fleet at Zara, the citizens
were won over by the promise of the restitution
of Pago, on Aug. 27 his standard was hoisted
in the piazza, and the example of the Zaratini
was speedily followed by the other towns and
islands. The Ban of Croatia, who was ap-
j)roaching to support the cause of Sigismund, was
Ch. I.] History of Dalmalia. 137
defeated near Bihac ; Vrana was taken by lier-
voye, and witli the exception of Ragusa and
Cattaro the whole of Dahnatia and its islands
accei)ted the dominion of Ladislaus. His pre- A.n. 1403.
'■ Ladislaus
tensions were supported by the Pope, and a cr..wued at
Zara.
leerate was sent to meet him at Zara where he
was solemnly crowned King of Hungary, Dal-
matia, and Croatia. He confirmed the privileges
of the various towns, and yielded to the objec-
tions made by the Traiirini and Sebenzani to the
construction of a castle within their cities as a
violation of their liberties. Hervoye was con-
stituted his viceroy and voyvode, and was made
count of Spalato, and of the islands of Curzola,
Lesina, Lissa, and Brazza ; and, leaving his new
kingdom in his lieutenant's charge, the king re-
turned to Naples in November.
His departure revived the sinking cause ofi^eaction
.in favour of
Sigismund. Veglia Segna and Modrussa received sigismund.
back their Count Nicolo Frangipani who sup-
ported Sigismund, and under his guidance Arbe
was recovered, but soon after lost again to the
Neapolitan admiral Giovanni di Lusignan. But
Ladislaus was occupied with another war in Italy
and could send no troops to Dahnatia, Bosnia was
torn by a struggle for the succession to the throne,
and was powerless, and the party of Sigismund
gained adherents every day. Finally Hervoye A.n. 14CS.
himself made his peace with Sigismund and trans- „f*^Hervoye
ferred his support to tliat side, and soon there alsiaus!'
remained to Ladislaus of all his acquisitions in
1 T^S History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i.
Dalmatia only the city of Zara, the castles of
Vrana and Novigrad, and the island of Pago. To
save himself from absolute discomfiture he re-
solved not to wait till these places fell into the
hands of the Hungarians, but to sell them to the
Venetians, and thus, though driven off the field
by his rival, he could feel that he left his sting
June 9, behind \ A hundred thousand ducats was the
1409.
Venetians prico which the Venetians were glad to give to
&cf '^^^' recover once more a footing in Dalmatia ; a fleet
was sent to take possession of Zara, the indigna-
A.D. 1409. tion of the Neapolitan soldiery was appeased after
covered by somc disturbance, a garrison was mtroduced, and
the defences of the city were strengthened by
cutting through the isthmus which joined it to
the mainland. Pago was placed as before under
the separate government of a Venetian count.
Sigismund did not remain passive ; his armies in-
vaded Friuli and Dalmatia, but without any success.
A.D. 141 1. The Venetians opposed his journey to Bome to
receive the Imperial crown, and allied themselves
against him with the Duke of Milan, and finally
compelled him to conclude a truce for five years.
At Sebenico the city was rent by factions : the
nobles favoured the Venetians and were expelled
by the populace, who were for Hungary; but
^ Luc. V. V. p. 262 has preserved the deed of sale. ' Ladis-
laus, &c. . . . et ex aliis causis justis moventibus mentem suam
Regiam vendere et alienare Civitatem ladrae . . . cum et sub
specificatione Novigradus Insulae Pagi et aliorum districtuum
ipsius nee non terram Lauranae cum fortalicio et castro . . .
pro ducatis centum millibus.'
Cii. I.] Hisloiy of Dalmatia. 139
finally, in 141 2, weary of internal dissension, the a.d. 1413.
exiles were recalled and the city handed over to recovered
the Venetians. At Spalato Hervoye, who was ^
convicted of intriguing with the Turks, was dis-
graced and expelled \ and retired to Cattaro,
where he died in 141 5. In 1420 the islands of
Lesina Brazza and Curzola gave themselves to
the Venetians, Trail was bombarded and captured a-^- M20.
. 1 • 1 -r»- T 1 o 1 Trau and
by then* admu'al Pietro Loredano, bpalato sur- spaiato,
rendered to avoid a like fate, and Cattaro, which islands re-
had for long implored the protection of the E,e- venke.
public against the Balsa of Zenta, was for the first
time in its history admitted to the dominion of
Venice.
The whole of maritime Dalmatia was now in
the possession of Venice except Bagusa, Almissa,
and Veglia. Almissa gave herself to the Bepublic
in 1 444 ; Veglia continued independent under her
counts of the Frangipani line, subject to the pro-
tection of Venice, till 1480, when the tyranny of
the last count Giovanni or Ivan caused his depo-
sition, after which the island was governed, like
the other Dalmatian states, by a Venetian count.
Although the Emperor did not foi-mally cede his Peace of
rights till the peace of 1437, he never succeeded juw 29,
in recovering any of the maritime cities ; and by
the terms of that peace, while the towns of tlie Final re-
ry
of
interior, Knin Verlicca Sign Scardona Clissa and Dalmatia
others were left to the Hungarians, Novigrad ^
^ 'Vafritiem Demetrii Pharii Imitatus Ducatum Spalati cuu-
secutus.' Lucio, p. 267.
140 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. I.
Nona Zara Sebenico Trail Spalato with their
respective territories, and all the islands except
those which belonged to Ragusa, were recognized
as Venetian.
Ragusa Ragusa alone had no share in these changes,
indepen- Of all the citios of Dalmatia she alone was pos-
sessed of resources sufficient to qualify her for
independence. Till 1358 she had acknowledged
the dominion of Venice and received a Venetian
count ; since that time she had lived under the
protection of Hungary, and accepted a count from
the king. But now that Hungary was in no
condition to interfere, the Eagusans, while care-
fully maintaining the useful shadow of Hungarian
protection, gradually advanced to complete prac-
tical independence, and formed their state into a
miniature republic on the model of Venice. As
such it survived almost to our own time, protected
first by the kings of Hungary and afterwards by
the Emj^ire, and its interesting indeiDendence
might have continued even to the present day
but for the whim of Napoleon who, in 1808,
thought fit to declare that the Republic of Ragusa
had ceased to exist.
Venetian ' Thus,' says Lucio at the end of his great
barrier to history, ' whatcvcr is included by the name of the
conquest. Dalmatian kingdom \ except Ragusa, by the good
^ Lucio liere as elsewhere limits the ' Dalmatian kingdom '
to the old Eoman cities, and the more recently chartered towns
like Sebenico, which being put on the same footing he considers
as placed witliin the Dahnatian pale.
Cn. I.] History of Dahiiah'a. 141
fortune of Dalmatia, passed into the hands of the
Venetians. For the Turks sjn-eading then- Empire
^vider every day, having taken Constantinople,
seized the kingdom of Bosnia and its dependencies
after the murder of Stephen, the illegitimate son
of King Thomas Ostoya, and occupied the gi-eater
part of Hungary and Croatia, and day by day
wastinfr the territories of the maritime cities them-
selves, acted over again the period of the occupa-
tion of Dalmatia by the Slavs, except that this
time things were better in one respect, namely
that through the precautions of the Venetians the
Turks occupied none of the islands, nor were they
allowed to practise piracy ; so that the Dalmatians
lead a more tolerable existence, and form a barrier
against the passage of the Turks to the neighbour-
ing shores of Italy, the country which they declare
it is their principal aim and desire to conquer \'
FOURTH PERIOD.
From ihe final acqimition of BaJmatia hi/ the Tenetians in
1420 to ihe downfall of the RepuIjUc iu iJgS.
By the establishment of Venetian rule through-
out Dalmatia an end was put to the civil dissen-
sions which had agitated the maritime cities since
' Luc. de Regn. lib. v. c. v. ji. 270. Tliis was written about
the middle of the Bevcnteenth century, while the Venetians
were still occupied in driving the Turks back from Dalmatia
into Bosnia.
142
History of Dalmatia.
[Ch. I.
Unsettled
state of
Dalmatia
previous
to the
Venetian
acquisi-
tion.
Civil
factions in
the cities.
the death of Lewis m 1382 ^ For nearly thu'ty
years they had been tossed to and fro from one
master to another, and whatever the shortcomings
of Venetian rule may have been — and they were
not few nor unimportant — it was at all events
something gained for the provincials to know
who was their master. The pretensions of Charles
III of Naples to the throne of Hungary, the
captivity of Queen Maria, and the outbreak of
the national movement of the Croats towards
independence had shaken the reliance of the Dal-
matians on the protection of Hungary, and left
them uncertain to which side it would be most
politic to attach themselves. In 1390 they sub-
mitted to the Bosnian king Tvartko ; five years
later they returned to Sigismund, but only to
doubt whether the death of Maria did not deter-
mine their allegiance to her husband ; five years
later again the whole country embraced with
something like enthusiasm the cause of Ladislaus
of Naples, only to find it had grasped at a shadow.
The result of these struggles and changes was to
divide the citizens into hostile factions which
favoured difierent sides and plotted and intrigued
against one another with all the animosity that
civil discord alone can inspire. Most of the towns
had their extrinseci and intrinseci, the weaker
^ Farlati remarks of the end of the fourteenth century,
' Incredibile dictu est quanta in conversione rerum et pertur-
batione in temporibus illis turn Dalmatae omnes turn vero
Arbenses versarentur, sic prorsus ut inter paucos annos ex aliis
ad alios Dominos et transierint et redierint.' Tom. v. p. 248.
Ch. I.] History of Dabnatia. 143
of the two parties being driven into exile, and
ever watching from beyond the border for an
opportunity of return and vengeance on the
triumphant faction. Theirs is the old story of
the banished citizens of the Greek common-
wealths, the fuorusciti of the Italian republics,
the emigi'cs of revolutionary France, who were
more formidable in exile than they would have
been at home, always intriguing with the neigh-
bouring powers and ready to sacrifice their
country to their own political objects. All Padfica-
this was now at an end, and in spite of the prosperity
terror of Turkish invasion which from this time province
forward hung like a cloud over the country till vei^ce.
the Turkish power itself began to decline, Dal-
matia under the settled government of a great
commercial power advanced rapidly in wealth and
prosperity. The arts flourished, noble buildings
sprang up, the treasuries were enriched with
beautiful work of the goldsmith or silversmith,
and while artists from the other shore of the
Adriatic were invited into the country, the native
Dalmatians proved themselves by no means de-
ficient in power both of design and execution, and
some among them attained celebrity and eminence
among the artists of Italy herself
From this time till the eighteenth century the
history of Dalmatia is simply a narrative of re-
sistance to the westward progress of Turkish
conquest. To the policy no less than the resolu-
tion of the Republic of S. Mark, and the stub-
144 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i.
born valour of her Dalmatian subjects, Europe is
indebted for the safety of Italy, the country for
which the Turk ever hungered, but on which,
except for a moment at Otranto, he never set
foot.
The Ottoman power soon recovered the shock
of Angora ; ''the massy trunk was bent to the
ground, hut no sooner did the hurricane jpass aivay
than it rose again with fresh vigour and more
lively vegetation \' The empire of Bajazet, torn
by the civil wars of his sons, was reunited by
Amurath II in 142 1 ; in the next year he assailed
Constantinople ; in 1 444 he defeated Ladislaus IV
and his general John Corvinus Huniades on the
fatal and perjured field of Varna ; and in 1453
AD. 1453. Mahomet II, son of Amurath, took Constantinople
Constanti- -l
nopie taken and extinsfuished the last feeble spark of the
by tlie '-' ••■
Turks. Koman Empire.
A.D. 1428. Servia meanwhile had regained a brief inde-
pendence. But the country was agitated by dis-
putes about the succession to the throne, and
when Lazzaro II, Brancovich, the fourth Despot
of Servia, died in 1458, his widow Helena obtained
from the Pope the investiture of the kingdom as
A.D. 1459. a fief of the Church. Enrao^ed at this concession
End of . P
Servian to the Romisli Cliurcli, which they detested, the
Servians appealed to the Sultan Mahomet II ;
the Turkish armies crossed the frontier, and in
1459 Servia and Bascia lost their last traces of
independence and sank into the condition of a
^ Gibbon, cliap. Ixv.
kingdom.
Ch. I.] History of Dalmatia. 145
province of the Ottoman Empire. Helena escaped
into Hungary, and thence retired to Ancona,
Rafmsa, and Venice, where she died in exile.
Bosnia also was torn by dissensions about the End of the
kingdom of
succession to the throne between Ostoya and Bosnia,
Tvartko II. Tvartko invited the Turks to his aid
and Ostoya the Hungarians, and though the
former succeeded in triumphing over Ostoya, it
was at the expense of allowing the Turks to obtain
a footing in the kingdom. In 1443, after the
death of both rivals, Stephen Thomas Kristic, son
of Ostoya, was elected king, but he was obliged
to purchase the acquiescence of the Turks by an
annual tribute to Amurath of 25,000 ducats. His
illegitmiate son Stephen Thomasovic, who mur-
dered him and succeeded to the throne in 1461,
having refused to pay the tribute, was flayed alive
by Mahomet II, and the kingdom of Bosnia be-
came, like Servia, a Turkish provmce.
One Slavonic principality still remained to be End of
swallowed up. In 1 440 the Em2oeror Frederick III Herzego-
had made Stephen Kosac, known to the Italians a.d. '1465.
as Cosaccia, Herzog or Duke of S. Saba, the
modern Herzegovina \ which at that time in-
cluded within its boundaries the highland republic
of Poglizza, and the Craina or sea-coast from the
Cetina to the Narenta. Almissa was induced to a.d. 1465.
^ * Herzegovina received its name from the title of Herzog,
Duke, or Voivoda It was also called the duchy of
Santo Saba, from the tomb of that saint.' Sir G. Wilkinson,
ii. p. 96; vid. also Lucio, lib. v. c. v.
VOL. 1. L
146 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i.
submit to the Venetians in 1 444, and the repubhc
of Poghzza, while retaining its autonomy, ac-
cepted the protection of the Repubhc, agreeing
to pay a small annual tribute by way of acknow-
ledgment, and to supply recruits for the Venetian
garrisons of Spalato Trail and the other maritime
cities. The rest of the duchy was overrun by
the Turks in 1465-6, and Cosaccia finding him-
self unable to defend the Craina, made it over
to the safer keeping of the Venetians ^ In 1475
his son Ladislaus gave them the fortress of Vissech
on the Cetina about three miles above Almissa, to
prevent its falling into the hands of the Turks ^,
and with these exceptions the duchy of Herzego-
vina shared the fate of Servia and Bosnia.
Eeasons Xho oase witli whicli the Slavonic principali-
for ease ■■■ ■*■
of conquest ties woro couQuered by the Mahometans is to be
by Turks. . ^ *^
explained by two causes. Principally, no doubt,
it was due to theu^ internal dissensions, in all of
which the Turks took care to mix themselves
I. Dissen- up, and out of which they never failed to reap ad-
sions "^ ■•• ^
among the Vantage. Another reason that has been given is
Christians. i • • . .
a religious one. The majority of the people were
Bogomiles or Patarenes, who had been persecuted
with fire and sword by the king the nobles and
the clergy, and who were driven in despau* to
look to the Turks as deliverers ^. We have seen
^ Sir Gard. Wilkinson, vol. ii. p. 196. Storia della Daluiazia
(Zara, 1878), p. 200, 209.
'-' Luc. de Regn. lib. v. c. v. p. 270.
^. Vid. lutrod. to Mr. A. Evans's ' Through Bosnia,' &c.
Cn. I.] History of Dalnmtia. 147
liow in Servia, where the people were attached '• Persecu-
te the Greek Church, they vohintarily called in Bogomiiea
Mahomet II to defend them against the preten- kings,
sions of the Church of Kome ; and in Bosnia
it is laid to the charge of the Romish proj3aganda
and its system of persecution that the people to
so great an extent became, and still remain,
Mahometan. In 1459, while his kingdom was
tottering to its fall, Stephen Thomas Kristic, who
had himself renegaded from Bogomilism, and
whom the gi-ateful Catholics have rewarded with
the title of ' tht Pious' expelled 40,000 innocent
Boo^omiles, who took refuc^e with the Herzoo- of
S. Saba their co-religionist. Ah-eady in 1450 BogomUes
the Bogomiles had turned to the Turks for pro- to seek
tection and invited them to enter the country, from^the^
and it was then that the tribute of 25,000 ducats "^ ^'
had been imposed as a condition of peace ; and
now on the final invasion of Mahomet II the
people offered no resistance. Radic, the Patarene
governor at Jajcze, persuaded the parricide king
to surrender himself, the ' Manichean ' governor
of Bohovac gave up the keys, seventy strong
places and cities opened their gates without a a.d. 1462-
struggle, and in a week the whole of Bosnia
passed into the hands of Mahomet II.
Of the Christian population, both Latin, Greek,
and Patarene, a lai*ge portion preserved their
faith and have kept it to the present day ; but Bosnian
p 1 -r\ • • n i> 1 • nobility
many of the Bosnians, especially of the aristo- not Turk-
11 T 1 • 1 i *^^^ ^"^
cracy, renegaded to Islam, in order to preserve siav.
148 History of Daliuatia. [Ch. i.
their ascendancy, retain their feuds, and triumph
over their ancient Cathohc foes. It must not be
forgotten in considering the history of Dahnatia
from this tune that the Moslem population of
Bosnia and Herzegovina are for the most part
not Turkish intruders but descendants of these
renegade Slavs, speaking the same language
and belonging to the same race as theu^ Christian
neighbours; and it is said the begs, or feudal
nobles, of Bosnia have all along kept with reve-
rent care their old title-deeds and pedigrees in
readiness for the return of Christian supremacy \
Advance of Bv the fall of thcse ultramontane kin2:doms,
Turks into -^ . . .
Daimatia. the outworks of Christian Europe, Dahnatia was
left exposed to the immediate attack of the
Turks, who advanced wreaking every kind of
cruelty on the unhappy people. In 1467 they
penetrated so far as to threaten Segna and ravage
the territory of Sebenico and Zara, and the Tralirini
to protect their coast built the succession of castles
along the shore of the Sea of Salona, which gave it
The the name of the Biviera dei Castelli, Numbers of
Morlacchi.
refugees from Bosnia and Croatia flocked into the
^ It used to be said (vid. Mr. Evans's ' Through Bosnia,' &c.)
that the Begs would become Christian again if Bosnia jmssed to
a Christian jiower. This condition has now come to pass, but
hitherto at all events no such conversion has followed. On
the contrary, something like an exodus is taking place. When
I was in Daimatia in 1884 and 1885 the steamers were crowded
with Mahometan Bosnians with their wives children and sub-
stance on their way to Trieste, whence they go to Asia Minor
where the Sultan gives them a settlement and grant of land.
Ch. I] History of Dalviatia. 149
Venetian territory, the ancestors of the Morlacchi
who constitute the peasantry of Northern Dal-
matia, an agricultural and pastoral race, hardy
and warlike, deadly foes of the Turks, and in-
valuable recruits for the armies of the Repul^lic '.
Watch-towers and beacons were planted on every
point of observation, on mountain-top or high-
land pass, and on the approach of the marauding
infidels the alarm was given by smoke in the day-
time or fii"e by night, so that the people might
take refuge in the fortresses or cities or arm
themselves for defence.
Matthias Corvinus, son of Huniades, who had a.d. 1465.
been elected King of Hungary in 1458, recovered re^cTveryYf
' The origin of the name Morlacco is obscure. Luc. lib.
vi. c. V. believes the Morlacchi who at this time descended into
the plains retiring as the Turks advanced, to be Vlahi, Ylachs,
or "W allachs, descendants of the population which preceded the
Slavonic conquest in the seventh century. Ylah, he says, will be
found among all the Slavs to mean Roman, Latin, Italian, names
which became terms of contempt and reproach with the victorious
Slavs. He quotes the Presbyter Diocleas who, writing before 1200,
says the Bulgarians conquered ' post haec totam Provinciam
Latinorum qui illo tempore Romani vocabantur modo vero
Moroulachi hoc est nigri Latini.' He adds that lEoldavia was
in later times called by the Greeks Maurolahia. The Morlacchi
however, if they ever were Romans, have not preserved their
Latin language like the Roumanians, but speak Illyrian, and it
remains to be explained why they should have been called
hlack. Others derive the name from Mor^ ' sea,' and Vlah,
inhabitant, 'dwellers along the sea'; not however the
Adriatic, but the Black sea, whence they originally came. Vid.
Sir G. Wilkinson, ii. 295. This neoms far-fetched in every
sense of the word. There are various other derivations of the
name besides these. Fortis devotes a chapter to the subject.
150 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i.
Bosnia by a large part of Bosnia in 1465, almost as rapidly
Hungary. • i i i -t~»
as it had been lost, and the Banat of Bosnia
maintained itself in dependence on Hungary
till 1527.
The condition of Dalmatia was deplorable ; the
raids of the Turks across the frontier were
continued even during the time of peace ;
Ladislaus of Hungary, who received an annual
subsidy of 30,000 ducats from the Venetians to
enable him to protect the frontier, was unable
to fulfil his engagements; his bans and viceroys
vied with the Turks in ravao-inof the Venetian
A.D. 1508- territory in Dalmatia and Istria; and finally the
League of Icaguc of Cambrai, which reduced the Bepublic
am rai. ^^ j^^ -j^^^^ extremity, caused the recall of all the
Venetian forces in Dalmatia for service at home,
thus leaving the defence of the province to its
own unassisted resources.
By the time that the Republic emerged from
these perils which had well-nigh swamped her,
and found herself once more in smooth water
though with shattered forces and half-ruined
commerce, it was no wonder that the Dalmatians
had begun to look for help elsewhere, and that
a Hungarian party had been formed in several of
the cities. Envoys from Zara and Trail had been
sent to Buda, and commotions had taken place in
those cities, and also at Sebenico and Lesina ; but
severe measures were taken against the leaders of
disaffection, and the authority of the Republic was
re-established.
Ch. I.] History of Dalniatia. 151
Meanwhile the incursions of the Turks con- a.d. 1515.
tinned. CHssa and the Polizzani were compelled -^[,^11*^ ""^
in 1 5 1 5 to pay tribute ; the invaders burned the <=o°*iue8t.
suburbs of Knin, besieged Jajcze, and captured
Kai'in, and, though often di'iven back with severe
loss, returned with undiminished ardour to the
attack. Even the Montenegrins in their inac- a.d. 1516.
cessible fastnesses could scarcely maintain their negro
doubtful independence, and the last of the Tzer- to'^pay
noievich dynasty, despairing of further resistance, *" "*®'
abandoned his country and retired to Venice with
his wife, who was of the family of Mocenigo, and
sank into obscurity as a Venetian patrician. The
defence of his principality was boldly taken up
by the bishop, or Vladika, of Cetinie, the &st The
1 I ' 1 1 • 1 1 1 Vladika.
of the hne of episcopal and princely heroes who
have so gallantly maintained their independence
to our own day. At this time however they were
obliged to pay an annual tribute to the Porte,
and a century elapsed before they were strong
enoufjh to refuse it.
The condition of the Croatians and Bosnians Croats
was desperate. They could obtain no aid from themselves
the Hungarians, their own forces were exhausted,
and their Ban Berisclavic had been slain. The
Croats turned their eyes towards Venice and
proposed to place themselves under the protec-
tion of the Republic, but Venice was occupied a.p. 1522.
])y tlie war of Cyprus, and was obliged to decline scardo'^na
even to take over the fortresses of Scardona and Jy*^the*
Clissa which were offered her. Knin, tlie prin- ^"'''^^'
152 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i.
cipal Croatian fortress in Dalmatia, surrendered
to the pacha of Bosnia in 1522, and the inhabit-
ants of Scardona fled to Sebenico abandoning
their city to the enemy, but the Croatian garrison
still held out in Clissa, though hardly pressed by
the besiegers.
A.D. 1526. Hungary was at this time torn by the struggle
M^oiiara° ^^^ the throne between Lewis II and John Za-
polya the Voivode of Transylvania, and the Sul-
tan Solyman thought the moment had arrived
for finally conquering the country which had so
long barred his way. Invading Hungary with an
enormous army he was met by Lewis with a very
inferior force at Mohacz on the Danube. The
Hungarians were routed, Lewis himself was
among the slain, Buda was obliged to open her
gates, and the whole country along the Danube
was ravaged before the conqueror returned to
Belgrad. Ferdinand of Austria, brother of
Charles V, who was elected to succeed Lewis II,
had enough to do to secure his throne against
the party of Zapolya, and he was in no condition
to send any assistance to Dalmatia or Bosnia.
Zapolya who had been crowned by his own
party at Alba Begalis allied himself with Soly-
A.D. 1529 man, to whom he offered to make his kingdom
tributary, and the Turkish armies advanced as
far as Vienna before they were compelled to
retire.
A.D. 1527. Meanwhile Jaicze had been surrendered to the
Bosnia
recovered Turks in 1 527, and with it the whole of Bosnia
Ch. I.] History of Dahiiatia. 153
passed once more, and irretrievably, into the power by the
of the Sultan. Sign Verlicca and Nucak in Dal-
matia were betrayed by their commandants, who
had been won by Turkish gold, and in 1536,
after then- heroic commandant Peter Krusic had a.d. 1536.
fallen, the garrison of Clissa were compelled to conquests
surrender that place to the pacha of Bosnia. The ["a. ^ "^^
castles of Vrana and Nadin were surrendered in
1538, and though the Venetians captured and
destroyed Scardona, and with the aid of the fleet
of Charles V took Castelnuovo in the Bocche di
Cattaro, the latter place was recovered directly
by Haireddin Barbarossa, who put the Spanish
garrison to the sword. When peace was con-
cluded between the Bepublic and the Sultan in Peace of
1540, no part of continental Dalmatia was left Daimatia
- — ^ . , . . I'll except the
to the Venetians except the cities ; while the cities
rest of Dalmatia was made a Turkish province the Turks.
under a Sangiac who fixed his residence at
Clissa.
An illustrious modern writer on Dalmatian
history^ attributes to the crowding of the cities
at this time \\itli refugees who left the oj^en
country from fear of the Turks the introduction
of the Illyrian language within the walls, where it
has since remained the tongue of the populace,
Italian being the lang-uage only of the upper
classes, except at Zara and Spalato which have
retained a thoroughly Italian character down to
our own times.
* Storia della Dalmazia. Zara, 1878, p. 243.
154 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i.
TbeiJscocs Y^Q ffarrisoii expelled from Clissa was composed
at begna. o i i
in great part of ' Uscocs/ or refugees from the
countries in the interior, who on the surrender
of the fortress retired to Segna on the Croatian
shore of the gulf of Quarnero, where Ferdinand
readily gave them a settlement on the understand-
ing that they were to defend the frontier against
the Turks. Active mountaineers, and well ac-
quainted with the country, they formed very
effective guerilla troops, and their forays across
the border kept the Turks in a constant state
of alarm. But they were a wild race, accustomed
to eke out the poor livelihood derived from a
barren and miserable country by deeds of robbery
and violence, and being unused to control or
discipline they were almost as formidable to their
TheVscocs £j^.JQj-^(jg and allies as to their enemies^. Once
become
pirates. settled at Segna they became no less expert by
sea than they had been on the mountains, and
their constant attacks on the shij^ping and mari-
time possessions of the Turks exposed the Vene-
tians, who were responsible for the safety of the
seas, to complaints and recriminations which
threatened to disturb the peace. Venice com-
plained in her turn to Ferdinand, Segna being
in Croatia and therefore within his dominions.
^ Vid. Palladius Fuscus Patavinus, A. d. 1540. ' Incolae uno
omnes vocabulo Morlachi vocantur qui ferinum potius quam
humanum aspectum prae se ferentes lacte caseoque victitant, et
j)rope vias abditi viatores alienigenas adoriuntur atque ditpo-
liaiit, denique summara laudem esse iiutant ex rapto vivere.'
Ch. T.] History of Dalniatia. 155
but her remonstrances met with little attention,
and the Uscocs, finding their movements watched
and impeded by the Venetians, extended their
depredations to the property and territory of the
Republic, and rapidly degenerated into mere
bloodthirsty corsairs whose name has become
infamous in Dalmatian history. The piracies of a.d. 1570.
the Uscocs gave occasion to Selim II, who had opened
succeeded his father Solyman the Magnificent ve^etirns
in 1567, to break the peace with Venice, and ^'^
reopen the war in Cyprus and Dalmatia. Ze-
monico near Zara was taken by his troops and
Novigrad assaulted, and the renegade Uliz-Ali
king of Algiers entered the Adriatic with a
powerful fleet. After ravaging the islands of
Zante and Cefalonia, he invaded Albania, took
Dulcigno Budua and Antivari, unsuccessfully
assaulted Curzola where he was daunted by the
courage of a slender garrison aided by the heroism
of the women, and landing at Lesina gave a great
part of the city to the flames.
Meanwhile Cyprus was invaded by an over- a.d. 1570.
whelming force of Turks ; Famagosta and Nicosia conquered
fell after a heroic defence, and the whole island ),^,^jjg^
passed into the possession of the enemy on the
4th of August, I 5 7 1 .
On the 7th of October however the sinking a.d. 1571.
fortunes of Christendom were retrieved by the Lepanto.
victory of Lepanto, when the united squadrons
of Spain Venice and the Pope, under the com-
mand of Don John of Austria, utterly defeated
156 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i.
the Turkish fleet and sank eighty of their galleys.
Uliz-Ali with about thirty galleys forced his
way through the enemy's lines and made his
escape, but otherwise the success of the Chris-
tians was complete and decisive. The Dalmatian
contingents had their share in the honours of
the day, and in the churches of Veglia and
Arbe may still be read the epitaphs of the
captains who commanded the triremes of those
islands ^
Diary of Sn Gardner Wilkinson gives extracts at con-
agents, siderable length from the diary and reports of
1 07 '-4- Venetian agents at Spalato and elsewhere in
Dalmatia during the years 1 571-4, which are
extremely interesting and throw much light on
the nature of the harassing and desultory warfare
of that time. They show that although the Turks
were guilty of great cruelties to the peasantry,
yet the hostilities between the regular combat-
ants were marked with something of chivalry
and courtesy. There are challenges to single
combat ; joustings between Captain Giorgio and
the Red Turk. Captain Giorgio complains that
his foe has killed his horse contrary to knightly
usage, and the Red Turk promises to give him
another, after which they embrace and part. In
the middle of all this comes the news of the vic-
tory of Andrea Doria and Don John at Lepanto,
and great rejoicings are made at Spalato, Zara,
and Trail, much to the perplexity of the Turks
' Vid. infra, Veglia, chapt. xxvi, and Aibe, chapt. xxviii.
Ch. I.] History of Daliuatia. 157
outside, who send a cavalier into Zara to enquire Diary of
what has ha})pened. Six cavaUers of the Turks ajents,
challenge six Christians to tilt. They kiss each ^^''~'*'
other fii-st on the forehead. There are love atlau's
between the two sides ; a Turk requests leave to
enter the churches and hear mass, but is refused
because he is suspected of being enamoured of
the Marquis's daughter.
From these and similar stories we erather that character
, ^ of the
the Turks, though rude and overbearing, were not Turks.
without generosity. As the Venetian agent says,
' no nation are all evil alike, seeing how some of
them are without conscience, laws, or honour,
while others are true and loyal cavaliers.' The
Turks respected a foe w^ho showed a bold front,
and always gave hun fair play. ' Whenever any
of our Dalmatians before turning his back to fly
like his neighbours wheels round upon his adver-
sary and gives him a sound drubbing, using his
fists and heels lustily, they always stand round
and allow him a fair fight. Moreover they always
remember the names of such individuals and re-
late their prowess among themselves, and these
men can always go \\\i\\ impunity among the
Turks even unarmed, because the respect which
they have inspired renders them inviolate \'
Peace was signed between Venice and the Porte a.d. 1573.
in 1573, each party regaining what it had lost seUm lY.*^'^
during the war, excej^t that the Turks retained
' Sir G. Wilkinson, vol. ii. p. 344. Sir G. W. says that this
description applic.'j to the Turks of the present clay also.
158 Histo7y of Dalmaiia. [Ch. i.
iTscoc Zemonico. For the next seventy-two years no direct
piracies , „. .
counte- hostilities occurred between the two powers, but
Austria, the iiTogular warfare carried on by the Uscocs was
continually on the verge of embroiling them, for
though the Venetians used every means to re-
strain the Uscocs by force, and induce the
emperor to remove them from the sea coast,
they were unable to succeed in either case, and
the Turks accused them of complicity with then-
tormentors. The position of the Venetians was a
very difficult one ; their gTeat object was to main-
tain peace with the Turk, but the Uscocs could
not be crushed without invading Croatia, which
would have involved hostilities with the emperor.
A. D. 1596. In 1596 a party of Uscocs and Poglizzans sur-
atitack on prisod Chssa, but the Turks speedily recovered it,
and routed the Croatians with the loss of many
of then" number, among whom was Antonio de
Dominis, bishop of Segna. This gave occasion to
the Porte for fresh complaints against the Vene-
tians who punished those who had taken part in
the affair, and renewed their remonstrances with
The Uscocs the emperor and his archduke of Styria, in whose
Venice and province Croatia was included. Matters grew
worse, and at last the murder of a Venetian
officer by the Uscocs with circumstances of the
most brutal atrocity brought matters to a crisis.
The Venetians attacked and destroyed Novi on the
Croatian coast, and war broke out between them
and the Austrians which raged for three years in
Friuli till terminated through the mediation of
Ch. I.] History of Dahnatia. 159
France in 161 7 by the peace of Madrid. The a.d. 1617.
Uscocs were removed in the following year to ^^^r\l,
Cai'lstadt in the interior of Croatia, theii- fleet
was destroyed, and Segna was garrisoned by
German troops'.
War again broke out between the Venetians a.d. 1645.
and Tm-ks, and the pasha of Bosnia invaded Turur^^ '
Dalmatia with a large army. Novigrad w^as sur- '^^"^^^ •
rendered by the Governor Conte Soardo after a
brief bombardment, and Sebenico was besieged
by the pasha, but without success. Leonardo
Foscolo, who was sent into Dalmatia as Provve-
ditore, recovered Novigrad, took and destroyed
Scai'dona, and captured Zemonico after a des-
perate resistance by the Sangiac Ali-beg of Vrana.
Fresh forces under Tekely, the new pasha of ^r- 1647.
Bosnia, advanced to besiege Sebenico, the com- of Leonar-
mand of which place was entrusted by Foscolo ^ ^"'^^ °'
to Degenfelt, who repelled the Tm-ks with a loss
of 4000 killed. Disease had incapacitated 5000
more, and the pasha was obliged to retreat to
Dernis, and thence into Bosnia. In the follow^mg a.d. 1648.
year, at the head of 6000 Morlacchi and 700
horse, Foscolo assaulted and took Dernis, ad-
vanced to Knin which he found abandoned by
the enemy, and captured Verlicca. His proposal
to rebuild and fortify Knin was unwisely rejected
by the Senate, and they had reason before long
to regret their decision. Clissa still held out,
' A more detailed account of tlie Uscocs will be given with
the description of Segna. Vid, below, chapter xxvii.
i6o History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i.
and an attempt to relieve it was made by Tekely
Pasha, but he was defeated, and the garrison
surrendered on condition that they should be
A.D. 1649. allowed to depart without arms. In the following
year Foscolo attacked the Turks in the Bocche di
Cattaro and took and destroyed Risano.
The war continued several years with varying
success ; Knin, which had been reoccuj)ied by the
Turks, was unsuccessfully assaulted, but the Mor-
lacchi under Smiglianich gained several brilliant .
victories over the enemies of their race, till theii*
leader fell in 1654. Had the defence of the
province been confided more to the natives and
less to the Italian mercenaries, it is probable that
the Turks would .have done far less mischief.
The Venetian agent at Spalato in 1 5 74 ^vrote to
Gallantry the Sigiiory that ' the 'princi'pal defence of their
native Dal- owTh countvy ougJit to hc Committed to those
brave people tvho verily have no care for their
lives against the Turks, hut set on them like mad
hidls; and truth compels me to say (albeit ivith
grief) that ive have been vanquished in more than
one important skirmish through the coivardice of
the Italian infantry^! The Provveditore Andrea
Corner in 1660 had the same opinion of the
A.n. 1660. native militia, and declared to the Senate that
the peasants were the principal defenders of the
province^ ; but the Venetians seem to have in-
herited from the Byzantine empire the jealous
^ Cited Sir G. Wilkinson, vol. ii. j^. 344.
"^ Storia della Dalmazia, Zara, 1878, p. 265.
Ch. I.] History of Dahnatia. i6i
mistrust which refused to the provincials the
defence of their own frontier.
The history of Ragusa since 1420 is so distinct a.d. 1667.
from the general history of Dalmatia that it is earthquake
reserved for a special chapter. It is impossible, * ^^'"^*'
however, not to notice in its chronological place
the fearful earthquake by which 5000 Ragusan
citizens, including the Rector Ghetaldi, were
buried in the ruins of then- houses, and many of
the principal buildings of the city were thro^vTi
do^^^l. The earthquake was felt as far as Cattaro,
where great damage was done to the cathedral
and other buildings.
Peace was at last arranged between the Porte ad. 1669.
and Venice ; Candia, which after a defence of ^jg^^®g^
twenty-nine years had been forced to capitulate, ^ndTurks
was yielded to the Sultan, but the Venetians
were secured in the possession of Clissa and the
forts they had occupied in Dalmatia. Disputes
arose as to the possession of the forts which the
Venetians had destroyed but not occupied, and
the Turks claimed and retained under this head
the castles of Zemonico Vrana Ostrovizza Der-
nis Knin and Douare. Hostilities again broke a.d. 16S3.
out with Kara Mustapha, the Grand Vizir, but his V^^eilna
defeat by Sobieski before Vienna, and his subse- gob^s^^
quent disgrace and execution, relieved Dalmatia
of a dangerous enemy. The Venetians took
advantage of the Turkish reverses, and in the
following year they had recovered Ostrovizza a.d. 16S4-
Plavno Perusic Bencovaz Scardona Obbravazzo
VOL. I. M
i62 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i.
Venetian and Deriiis, and the only places still held
in Daima- bj the Turks Were Sign and Knin. Their fate
was however only deferred, for Sign was taken
in 1686 and the garrison put to the sword, and
Knin and Yerlicca were obliged to surrender in
1688.
The tide of Turkish conquest had turned.
Buda was taken by the Christian forces in 1686,
after having been 145 years in the possession
of the Moslem, and the soil of Hungary was
once more cleared of the invader. In 1690 the
Venetians completed the conquest of the Morea,
and having driven the Turk back from the sea-
board of Dalmatia, they pursued their successes
A.D. 1699. in Herzegovina and Bosnia. The war was closed
Cariovitz. by the peace of Carlovitz between the Emperor
Dalmatia the Bcpublic and the Sultan, by the terms of
Venice. ° wliich the Venetians gave up their conquests be-
yond the frontiers of Dalmatia, but were confirmed
in the possession of all Dalmatia except the terri-
tory and city of Bagusa, which remained inde-
pendent under the nominal protection of the
Empire, and the more real defence of the Turks,
to whom the Bagusans paid a tribute.
A.D. 1 7 14. The Turks were not disposed to rest long under
renewed, tcrms SO disadvantageous to them, and they de-
clared war again against Venice in 1 7 1 4 on the
ground that the Bepublic had allowed piracy and
favoured the Vladika of Montenegro their enemy.
A.D. 1 71 7. The Emperor offered his alliance to the Bepublic,
Belgrade, and Priucc Eugene advanced into the Banat and
Ch. I] History of Dahnatia. 163
besiecjed and took Belgrade, a success which
partly compensated Christendom for the loss of
the Morea, which was regained by the Turks in
1 715. The peace of Passarovitz confirmed the ad. 1718.
Republic in the possession of the whole of Dal- Passa-
niatia, excepting as before the territor)' of Ragusa veneUan
which extended from Klek on the Canale della Jf ^^^hia"
Narenta to Sutorina in the Bocche di Cattaro. ^^^l^]
At these two points Ragusan jealousy of the Vene-
tians, whom the little Republic feared more than
the Tuiks, had stipulated that a narrow slip of
teiTitory should be conceded to the Turks to
divide her by an impassable barrier from the dan-
gerous proximity of the Venetians. Beyond
Sutorina the Venetian territory began again
with Castelnuovo, and the province of Vene-
tian Albania, as it was called, extended from
this point southwards, beyond Cattaro and
Budua.
Dalmatia from the mountains to the sea was Turkish
1 r> n '111 j^ /» j_i invasions
thus nnaily united under the government 01 the finally
Republic, and the Turks never again invaded
it. From this time till the fall of the Venetian
Republic there is little or nothing to record. The
policy of the State was to preserve its neutrality
and avoid occasion of quarrel with its more power-
ful neighbours, and to prevent any excitement or
outbreak in its provinces, and the Dalmatians
were involved in the i^olitical and moral stupor Venetian
•'■ ^ rule in
that gi-adually paralysed the Venetian conmion- Uaimatia.
wealth.
M 2
164 History of Dahnatia. [Ch. i.
Fall of the On the fall of the Republic of Yenice the
Kepublic ,
of Venice. Dalmatian troops were sent home, disbanded, and
A.D. I'7Q'7,
Daimatia' distributed among then- families without any dis-
Austria. turbaiice. Daimatia was ceded to Austria by the
treaty of Campo Formio, together with the rest
of the Venetian territory. Some disturbances fol-
lowed at Spalato and Trail, where the Garagnin
palace was sacked by the mob, and also at Sebe-
nico Lesina and Macarsca, but the arrival of the
Austrian officials and troops put an end to all
idea of resistance, and order was re-established
without difficulty.
Peace of "Y^xQ remainder of the history of Daimatia may
PresDurg, "^ _ ^
Dec. 26, be briefly dismissed. After Austerlitz, Daimatia
Daimatia was by the terms of the peace of Presburo' ceded
ceded to "^ ^ ° .
Prance, to Fraiicc, but boforc the French could arrive to
occupy it the Russians had seized the Bocche di
Cattaro, garrisoned Castelnuovo, and induced the
Montenegrins to rise in arms to support them.
The French under Molitor reached Knin on Feb.
A.D. 1806. 12, 1806, occupied Zara and Sign, and advanced
French and towards the Boccho by way of Trail, Spalato,
ussians. ]y[^(3^j.g(jg^^ ^^^ \\^q Narenta. The small independ-
ent state of Bagusa unhappily lay in their path,
and as the two combatants could only get at one
another by traversing Bagusan territory the
government of that state was unable to remain
neutral. To allow the French to pass would bring
on the Bagusans the vengeance of Bussia, to
Ch. I.] History of Dalniatia. 165
refuse would cause an instant rupture with France. Danger
It was a dilemma in which either alternative despair of
meant ruin ; the despair of the citizens was ex- ^"^*
treme, and Count Caboga proposed that the
Republic should beg from the Sultan, their pro-
tector, some island in the Aegean whither they
might migrate and where they might continue to
live under their own laws as heretofore. These
councils of despair were not heeded ; the French
were allowed to enter, and in consequence the
Rafnisans found their commerce laid under an
embargo in the ports of every European country
which was at war with France. The Russians
and Montenegi'ins ravaged their territory, and
their delicious suburbs with the gardens and villas
of their aristocracy were reduced to a wilderness.
A report that the French were advancing in force
caused the Russians and Montenegrins to retire,
but the ruin of Ragusa was effectually accom-
plished.
In the following year the Russians took Curzola, a.d. 1S07.
but were repulsed by the French in an attempt tion o^
on Lesina. The little peasant republic of Poglizza J^f poSl^.
in the fastnesses of Mount Mossor rose in arms,
but the French made short work of its rustic
militia ; those who could not escape to the Russian
ships had to witness the destruction of their homes
and the massacre of then- kindred in cold blood
by the bnital French soldiery, who marched
through their country for three days destroying
the villages and putting the inhabitants to the
1 66 History of Dalmatia, [Ch. i.
sword. A price was set on the head of the Great
Count and the other officials, and the Kepubhc of
Poghzza ' ceased to exist.'
Peace of The French administration of Dalmatia after
Tilsit,
July, 1807. the peace of Tilsit, when they were left in posses-
sion of the country, was tyrannical and severe, and
the prisons were crowded with political offenders
who were afterwards transported to France where
they languished in captivity till the downfall of
the Empire.
A.D. 1808. In 1808 it was decreed by Napoleon that the
Eepubiic Bcpublic of Ragusa, which had been ruined in his
of Eagusa. ggj-yj^^g^ ]-^g^(j <■ ceascd to exist.'
At this time our own countrymen contribute a
chapter to Dalmatian history. England had sent
a detachment of her fleet under Captain Hoste
into the Adriatic, which made its principal station
at Lissa, the outermost island of the Dalmatian
The Eng- archijoclago. Under the protection of the British
lish at . .
Lissa. flag Lissa rapidly became an emporium for British
commerce, and the goods of Manchester, Leeds,
and Birmingham, prohibited in every port under
French control, were smuggled across the Dalma-
tian frontier and so through Bosnia into Germany.
The population of the island rose between 1808
and 181 1 from 4000 to 12,000, and the profits
made both by Lissans and Dalmatians were im-
mense. In the temporary absence of the English
squadron a French fleet under Dubordieu sailed
from Ancona, and entering Lissa under English
colours landed a body of troops unopposed and
Ch. I.] History of Dalviatia. 167
burned sixty-four merchantmen with their cargoes.
A rumour of the return of the EngHsh fleet caused
the French to make a hasty retreat, and they
sailed acrain the same nig-ht for Ancona. In the Battle of
° ^ Lissa,
spring the French fleet was strengthened and a March 13,
resohite attempt Avas made to expel the English
from Lissa, Dubordieu's force consisted of four
frigates of forty-four gims, two corvettes of thirty-
two guns, a sixteen-gun brig, a schooner, two gun-
boats, and a xebec, carrying in all 284 guns, and
a body of infantry destined to occupy the island.
The English fleet, under Captain Hoste, consisted
of four ships, the Amphion Active Cerberus and
Volage, mounting altogether 156 guns. The
numbers were 880 men on the English side against
2500 French and Italians, but notwithstanding
the odds against them the English obtained a
complete victory. Three frigates and one corvette
of the enemy struck their colours, and the French
admiral Dubordieu was among the slain.
In the following year Lissa, and in 1 8 1 3 Curzola, a.d. 1S12-
were regularly occupied by the English, who English
occupation
appointed a governor and established a system of the
of administration under native officials in each
island, which continued till July 15, 18 15, at the
end of the war, when both islands, together with
Lagosta, which had also been occupied by the
English, were handed over to the Austrians.
In 1809, the French troops having been with-
drawn from Dalmatia, the Austrians re-entered ;
V)ut by the treaty of Vienna, Oct. 14, 1809, the
1 68 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i.
Severity of provliice was restorecl to France and united to the
govern- lUyrian kingdom. A military conmiission sat at
Dalmatia. Scbenico wliicli tried, shot, and imprisoned those
who had been impUcated in bringing back the
Austrians, and the fort S. Nicol5 at the entrance
of the harbour was crowded with poHtical prisoners.
The clemency of Marmont, who commanded in
the province, is in agreeable contrast to the severity
of the French government which he served, and
it was owing to his humanity that the town of
Scardona was spared the destruction to which it
had been condemned for a demonstration in favour
of Austria.
A.D. 1S14. After the Kussian campaign, and the other
disasters that befel the French arms, the combined
efforts of Austria and England drove the French
from Dalmatia, which has since remained under
the rule of the Austrian Emperor, and so, as it
were by accident, has once more returned to the
dominion of a Hungarian king.
Condition From a revicw of the character of Venetian
matia domiuiou in Dalmatia since the final occupation of
Venetians, the couutry by the Kepublic, and of its effect on
1797-^^°^" the condition of the people, it may be gathered
that however little the Venetians desired to pro-
mote the interests of their subjects, and however
badly they may have governed them in some
respects, the province, and more especially the
cities, made on the whole a rapid advance in
Cn. I.] History of Dalmatia. 169
material prosperity under the settled government Daimati*
of the Republic, and that arts and letters flourished Venetians,
m spite of the absence of any encouragement from 1797/
the State. The worst feature of Venetian govern-
ment was its jealous hatred of any political vitality
in its subjects, and the terrorism of the secret
police by which it guarded itself against popular Terror of
combinations. So great was the moral terror police.^
insj^ired by the secret machinery of the State that
it is said one or two sbiiTi were enough to carry
out any sentence of the law, and that a man con-
demned to the pillory would sit out the term of
his punishment wdthout any guard being necessary
to prevent his escape.
The government agents kept the Senate informed
of everything that took place, and of everything
that was said ; those who had gone far enough to
be dangerous disappeared, and their fate was
wrapped in mystery which added terror to its
warning for others ; young men of family who had
travelled and imbibed liberal notions at Padua,
Oxford, Brussels, or Rotterdam, and had been
overheard indiscreetly drawing unfavourable com-
parisons between their own government and that
of other countries, were sent for to Venice and
appointed to some post or employment ' ivli ich
luoidd keep them away from the five,' and the
local authorities of the various towns were warned
not to hesitate ' to cut away certain 2^oisoned
members to preserve the sound part from irifection^.'
' Document! Storici, published by Solitro from the Eccoids
170 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. I.
Daimatia The voiiths of Dalmatia and Istria were withdrawn
under the
Venetians, from their own country where they mig-ht have
A.D. 1409- ^ ./ O
1797- been dangerous, and drafted into the forces of the
RepubHc serving in Italy, while Dalmatia was
defended by Italian troops, who, as we have seen,
made a much weaker barrier agfainst the Turks
than would have been opposed by those whose
State con- hcarths and homes wcro threatened^. The Church
trol over •ip t c* ^ ^ ••iipi
the Church, itseli was made to feel the restraniing hand of the
State ; it was allowed no secular power, the
patronage of benefices and even bishoprics was
virtually possessed by the government, the repre-
sentative of the Republic was enthroned in the
cathedral in a position of equal dignity with the
archbishop or bishop^; and when at last the Senate
was induced to allow the establishment of the
' Holy Inquisition ' within its dominion, the per-
mission was accompanied by the condition that
lay assessors appointed by the State should sit
with the inquisitors, and that the sentences should
be revised and confirmed by the Council of Ten-
3
in the Library of S. Mark, class. 7, cod. ccx. quoted by Sir G.
Wilkinson, vol. ii. p. 344.
^ The Dalmatian levies amounted to 12,000 men out of a
population of 250,000. Stor. della Dalm. j). 280.
"^ Cubich, Veglia, pai't ii. p. 116, See also below, description
of duorao of Zara, chapfc. iv.
' Eomanin, Stor. di Ven. v. c. 6. The i-esult was that very few
cases of capital punishment for heresy occur in the annals of
Venice. ' La saggia Venezia voleva frenare il soverchio zelo ed
eventuale fanatismo degl' inquisitoi'i e raccommandava mitezza
nelle pene ; sicche rarissimi furono i casi di condanne a morte
die altrove abbondavano.' Franceschi, L' Istria, p. 291.
Ch. I.] History of Dahiatia. 171
At the final re-entry of Venice into Dalmatia the Daimatia
under the
ancient ])rivileges of the cities seem to have been Venetians,
1 • 1 1 T1 /.A.D. 1409-
conni-nied \\\ most respects, but the hberty 01 1797.
electing the count was not restored to them, the
appointment being thenceforth vested in the State.
The Gran Consiglio also, originally a democratical
assembly in each little commonwealth, as it had
been in Venice before 1299, was now as in the
ruling state a close aristocratical body, to which
the people had no access, and which served the
central government as an obedient instrument for
carrying out its ends. In other respects the
municipal liberties seem to have been maintained,
and justice on the whole fairly administered
between rich and poor ; but the distance from the
central government threw too much power into Excessive
. . power of
the hands of the Provveditori, who during their thegovem-
thirty-two months of office were almost absolute
rulers, especially on the islands, and who some-
times exercised their authority in an arbitrary and
despotic manner. The taxes were onerous, and
as the object of the government was to keep the
country poor and dependent the burden was so
arranged as to press heavily on the few native
industries it possessed. The monopoly of salt The salt
1 1 • -n 1 ^ 1 * • monopoly.
placed, as it still does under the Austrian govern-
ment, insuperable difficulties in the way of the
fisheries, which if properly developed would be a
mine of wealth for the maritime Dalmatians,
especially the islanders. Nowhere is there a more
abundant supply of fish than at Lissa, and yet for
172 History of Dabnatia. [Ch. i.
Daimatia poHtical reasons no magazine of salt was allowed on
Venetians, that island, SO that when the fishermen had a
1-97/°^ great take offish they were obliged to row thirty
or forty miles to Lesina to get salt ; and if con-
trary winds or bad weather prevented their going
thither, fifty or a hundred thousand fish would
sometimes have to be thrown into the sea and
wasted \
Industry In somo instaiices the government attempted to
destroy the resources of the country by more
direct means. The silkworm had been cultivated
in Daimatia from early times ^, and silk and olive
oil had been among the chief products of the
country. An iniquitous decree of the Senate
ordered that all the mulberry trees and olives
should be cut down, and a great number of the
former had been destroyed when it was found that
the people were determined to resist a measure
which meant nothing less than ruin to them, and
the olive trees which are scarcely less important
to the Dalmatian farmer than his vines were
saved.
Education Educatiou, if iiot prohibited, was discouraged,
discourag- . , . ,
ed. and no public schools existed 111 the province
except one seminary at Spalato which was founded
in 1700 by archbishop Stefano Cosmi Comasco,
and endowed with the funds of two religious
establishments at Trail '^. The youths of the higher
^ Fortis, Viagglo in Dalm.
^ E.g. at Arbe ; vid. sup. p. 31, and infra, chapt, xxviii.
^ Storia della Dalmazia, p. 408.
Ch. I.] History of Dabuatia. i 73
classes had to go to Italy to study in the univer- Daimatia
sities of Padua, Pa via, or Bologna, or else to con- Venetians,
tent themselves with the teaching of the clergy at 1797/°^
home, while the peasantry were left in the lowest
depths of ignorance and barbarism. It will
scai'cely be believed that the printing press was
not introduced at Zara till 1 796, when the Re-
public was on its deathbed.
The country swarmed with ecclesiastics, and the Excessive
number of conventual establishments almost ex- ecciesias-
ceeds belief The island of Arbe, with a popula-
tion of some 3000 souls, had at the time of Abbate
Fortis's visit no fewer than three convents of
friars, and as many of nuns, besides sixty priests
who were poorly endowed, and whose sustenance
fell on the akeady im^Doverished islanders. Out
of 3000 inhabitants of Cherso at the same period
there were 1 20 ecclesiastics, including a convent
of friars, and a monastery of nuns, ' an excessive
number to say the truth in a 2>lace ivhere arms
are so 2)i^(icious.' At Pago Fortis found no fewer
than two convents for men and one for women
within the walls, and at a short distance another
for Franciscan friars, ' a race of men loho under
various names and disguises infest every ^^Zoce
where credidous ignorance can he persuaded to
maintain the idle and superstitions'^.^
Of the condition of the Morlacchi at the time Social state
of his Visit he gives a very interesting account, stition of
He found them honest, generous, simple, and con- laccbi.
' Abbate Fortis, Description of island of Pago.
174 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. I.
Daimatia fiding, and easily imposed on by the Italians.
under the
Venetians, ihere wero no beggars among them poor as they
A.D. 1409— 1 1 ..,.,.
1797. were, and they were never wantmg m hospitality
to strangers. Their superstition was abject, and
the mendicant clergy were either as ignorant and
superstitious as then' flock or else traded on the
ignorance of the people for then- own profit. The
Morlacchi both of the Greek and the Latin church
believed in witches, fairies, enchantments, noc-
turnal apparitions, and vampires ^ or spirits of
dead persons who suck the blood of infants.
When any dead person was suspected of becoming
a vampire the body was ham-strung and pierced
with pins which prevented its wandering, and
many persons on their deathbed, afraid of becom-
ing vampires, implored their relatives to serve
them in this way after death. Morlacca girls
Treatment were Carried off by then- suitors with their own
of women
among coiiscnt, ill ordor to escape the attentions of those
Morlacchi. . ^ . -t\ (* • -n •
they intended to reject, iieiore marriage Jbortis
says the girls were neat, but when married they
neglected their persons and became filthy and
repulsive. Women were treated as inferiors ; if
the husband possessed a bedstead the wife lay on
the floor ; and a man never spoke of his wife
without an apologetic ' by your leave,' or ' begging
Their cot- your pardoii.' Their cottages were seldom roofed
with anything but thatch or shingles ; beds were
rare, the people generally lay on the ground
wrapped in goat's hair blankets, or in summer out
_^ Called Vukodlak ; or in the island of Clierso Bilsi.
Ch. I.] History of Dah)iatia. 175
of doors the better to escape the attacks ofDaimatia
mi n p 1 1 1 •! • 1 "uder the
vermin, ilie walls 01 the huts were built with- Venetians,
11 , 1 . , A.D. I4OO—
out mortar, tlie door was the only opening, and 1797.
the smoke had to find its way out without a
chimney. The interior was varnished black and
loathsome w^th smoke, the savour of which per-
vaded everything, hanging about the persons and
clothes of the inhabitants and flavouring the
milk and everything they ate or drank. The
only point about which they were nice was that
of sanitary cleanliness, as to which they seem to
have been scrupulously exact, but they were con-
tent to share their houses with the beasts, and a
slight wattled partition plastered with clay or
dung was all that separated the human inmates
from their pigs and oxen and horses. They had
an extreme abhorrence of snakes, founded on Pagan Supersti-
tion ofMor-
traditions. In the beginning they say there were lacchi con-
three suns, the heat of which being excessive the snakes?
serpent resolved on getting rid of them. He
succeeded in absorbing two and a half, but the
remaining half sun, whose light we now enjoy,
proving too much for him, the serpent, unable to
bear the light, hid himself among the rocks. The
sun incensed at the attack that had been made
on him applauded every one who killed one of the
serpent race, and threatened to punish him \\\\o
failed to do so when he had the chance. Wlieii
Fortis was ascending Monte Biocovo above Almissa
a viper crossed the path of his guides. ' T^wtj hotJi
ran furiously to kill it with itfones ; our tnterces-
1 76 History of Dahnatia. [Ch. i.
Daimatia 81071 to let it oloue had HO effect ; they said it ivas
Venetians, oc Tualejick demou disguised in that form, and
1797. even turned in horrour from the ivay they thought
it might have touched! His companion Signor
Bajamonte having taken it up in his hand and
approached them to show them it was dead, they
presented their muskets at him and bade him
stand off at the peril of his hfe.
Supersti- Still morc curious were the superstitions about
tion fos-
tered by tempests and the mode of averting them. At
the clergy. „
Pago one of the Dominican friars was in Fortis's
time elected by the people to the office of exor-
cising storms, and keeping the island clear of the
summer rains which damaged the salt works, and
of hail which destroyed the vines. At Novaglia
also the clergy were expected to exorcise the evil
spirits and the Vukodlaci or witches who raised
the storms, and they had to stand in their sacer-
dotal dress with the holy water in their hand
exposed to wind and rain. ' The impostors,' he
says, ' a'ppeared to act this scene very seriously,
Tnaking a thousand Tnotions and grimaces and
leaping from one side to the other as if pursuing
some VukodlaJc. I hieiv one of them ivho ran
after the devil into the sea up to the m^iddle, and
in that strange position continued his crosses,
aspersions, and conjurations. The islanders,
ivhile the priest mutters his prayers, discharge
their pieces towards the place poi7ited at hy him
as if to hill the ivitches or p)ut them to fight.
What sillier customs can there he among the
Cii. I.] History of Dalniatia. 177
Lapponians!' At Verbenico on the island of'i)Himatia
Veglia the priests 'are ohlujcd to sleep nnder o vlnaiaM,
lodge open on all sides and contiguous to the ^707!'^°^"
steeple from St. Georges Day to Michaelmas, that
they may he ready at any time to drive away
the storms of hail hy ringing the hells, and if the
storm continues it is their duty to go out into
the 02)en air hareheaded to conjure it.' The
Abbate goes on to enlarge on the shameful ignor-
ance and superstition of the priesthood in the
rural districts. At Castehnuschio he was shown
two pieces of willow and told they were parts of
Moses' rod, and two links of a chain which were
said to have bound S. Peter. The saints were
represented by frightful images scarcely resem-
bling anything human, to which the people were
so devoted that it would have been dangerous to
attempt to deprive them of them \
The degree of cultivation among the upper cuitiva-
classes, less dependent on local conditions than upper
that of the peasantry, was not inferior to that of^*^*^^"
Italy or the rest of Europe, and a very creditable
list may be made out of Dalmatians who distin-
guished themselves in arts and letters during the
fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Sebenico, the youngest of 'Dalmatian' towns,
produced more illustrious sons than any except
perhaps Ilagusa, and Fortis declares that in the
sixteenth century the arts and sciences flourished
^ I saw a IViglitl'ul Init liiglily vcucratcd image of fS. Gau-
denzio at Ossero in 1884.
VOL. I. N
Illustrious
Dalm
tiaus.
1 78 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i.
Daimatia there Hiore than in any other town of Dalmatia.
under the
Venetians, From this citv Sprang the four Veranzii, of whom
A.D. 1409-
1 797. the eldest Antonio (b. 1 504 f 1573), rose to the dig-
Dilmi''"^ nity of Archbishop of Gran, Prunate of Hungary,
and Viceroy of the kingdom, and left behind him
valuable materials for the history of his country ;
the Illyrian poet Difnico and the historian Tomco
Marnavich were also Sebenzani, and so were
Schiavone the painter, whom Titian condescended
to imitate, and Martino Rota the engraver.
Giorgio Orsini also, the architect of the wondrous
vaults of the cathedral, was an inhabitant of
Sebenico, though probably a native of Zara, and
he may be claimed as a naturalized Dalmatian
though descended from a Roman stock. The
island of Cherso produced Francesco Patrizzi or
Patrizio, the first to unfold the military system of
Rome, from whom Lipsius is accused by Scaliger
of plagiarizing^ ; Arbe gave birth to Nimira an
accomplished though self-taught mathematician,
and the famous Marc Antonio de Dominis the
first to explain the solar spectrum, whose theo-
logical wanderings have almost made the world
forget his achievements in the field of natural
science; Zara alone has no illustrious progeny to
boast of unless, as seems probable, the architect
Giorgio Orsini was born there. Spalato during
this period can only point to the name of Marco
^ Vid. Hallam, History of Literature, vol. i. p. 526, vol. ii. pp.
6, 371, and Fortis, Saggio d' osservazioni sopra 1' isola de Cherso
ed Osero. Patrizio was born in 1529, and died in 1597.
Ch. I] History of Dalmatia. 1 79
Marulo tlie liistorian, but Trail may glory in Daimati*
having given birth to Giovanni Lucio, the father Venetians,
of Dahnatian history, whose great work is as 1797. '*
remarkable for critical sagacity as for the industry
and research which have gone to produce it.
Ragusa, whose independence dates from the Ragusan
period when the rest of Dalmatia passed finally
under the dominion of Venice, has a still more
brilliant roll of worthies to display. Elio Lam-
pridio Cervo, the poet laureate, and Ludovico
(Tubero) Cerva of the same family, the historian
of his o\vn times, flourished in the fifteenth and
eai'lier part of the sixteenth century : Gian. Fran-
cesco Gondola (b. 1588 t ^^Z'^) achieved the great
literary triumph of the Illyi'ic language by his
epic poem of the Osmanide, in which the subject
is taken from contemporary history, and the hero is
a sultan of those Turks whose friendship strangely
enough was the bulwark of Ragusan independence
at the time that they were generally regarded as
the natural foes of Christendom. At the same
time Marino Ghetaldi was pursuing those experi-
ments in natural science which gained him an
European reputation, while the Ragusan peasantry
thought him an enchanter and dreaded to ap-
proach the cave which served him for a laboratory;
and in the eighteenth century the acliievements
of Ruggiero Giuseppe Boscovich as a mathema-
tician and natural })hilosopher shed lustre on his
native city'.
' Both Cnietaldi niid Boscovich travelled to Knglnml, iiinl the
N 2
I So History of Dalmatia. [Ch. I.
Daimatia That in point of material prosperity the maritime
Venetians, towiis and islands of Dahnatia flourished under
1797-^'^°^ the dominion of Venice is proved beyond a doubt
Material ^y the iDubHc and private buiklinp;s which beo-an
prosperity . . . .
shown by to springf up on all sides as soon as the political
architec- . .
turai acti- transition was effected. Zara completed her
1420. cathedral and the basilica of S. Grisogono ;
Sebenico began her new cathedral and raised it
nearly to the cupola ; Curzola completed her
duomo and raised the campanile, and built the
Badia with its graceful cloister which is one of
the gems of Dalmatian art ; a new cathedral w^as
begun at Ossero ; and the cathedral at Trail was
enlarged and adorned by its western tower and
by the sumptuous sacristy baptistery and chapels
that render it the most magnificent church in
Dalmatia. Throughout the province the churches
and convents were fitted with handsome stalls,
and the treasuries furnished with beautiful plate
and embroideries, reflecting the taste of the ruling-
city and probably generally the handiwork of
Venetian artists. Palaces and public buildings
that remind one by their architecture of the
Grand Canal sprang uj) in the streets of every
seaport town of the mainland or islands ; the
streets and squares were paved, and the walls
latter was made a fellow of our Eoyal Society. Boswell men-
tions him more than once ; he met Dr. Johnson at dinner at
the houses of Sir Joshua Reynolds and Dr. Douglas, afterwards
Bishop of Salisbury, where ' that celebrated foreigner expressed
his astonishment at Johnson's Latin conversation,' ch. li.
Ch. I] History of Dalmalia. i8i
and gfites rebuilt or strengthened; tlie IkuIkjihs
were improved, areenals were established, and the
dockyards were crowded with shipj)ing in course of
repair or construction. In the princi})al ])iazza of
each city was erected the loggia or tribunal, where
sat the judges, and where the principal 2)ublic
business of the place was transacted ; in front of
it a })illar suj)ported the flag-post from which
floated the banner of the Republic, while the Lion
of St. Mark, in marble or stone, looked down from
every gateway, bastion, and public building, sig-
niticant of the watchful argus-eyed government
seated v>\\ the distant lagunes whose vigilance
nothing could escape.
As the commercial greatness of Venice declined Decline of
Venice felt
towards the end of her career, the prosperity of her in Daima-
dependencies naturally passed away at the same
time. Decay and torpor set in, ship-building de-
clined, the ports were deserted and the trade came
nearly to a standstill. The arts were neglected,
and the series of architectural works was closed,
except at Ragusa, which still pi-eserved its liberties
and some remains of its former prosperity. The
palaces of the rich Venetian and native merchants
were deserted or neglected, and many of them
fell into the ruin which now meets the eye at
every turn.
Such was the state of Dahnatia when the i)ro- Daimatia
vince came into the hands of the Austrians, and Austria,
sucli to a great extent it remains to the })resent
dav. Somethiiiir bus undoubtedlv been dune by
1 82 Histoi'-y of Dalmatia. [Ch. i.
Daimatia the preseiit government, and it is no light benefit
under Aus- . p t i
tria. to the province that a perfect system of pohce has
been estabhshed, that the Haiduks or bandits have
been suppressed, and that notwithstanding the
vicinity of the Turkish provinces the traveller
may move about in the remotest corners of Dal-
matia as freely as he would in England, and with
a security that is unknown in the south of Italy
or Spain. Blood feuds among the Morlacchi have
also been repressed, and the practice of carrying
arms put under control, and above all a regular
system of education in all its grades, both elemen-
tary and advanced, except that of the University,
has been introduced into every part of the country.
For all this Dalmatia may well feel grateful to
her present masters ; but there is still much that
she may fairly ask to be done for her. Her trade
and productions are hampered by vexatious cus-
toms and monopolies, and the peasants still plough
the land with instruments compared to which the
Virgilian plough was a masterpiece of ingenuity.
' Ah, Signore,' said a Dalmatian tradesman to me,
' it is a wretched country you have come to visit ;
the Venetians made a Morlaccheria of it, and
though the present government has done a little
for us of late years, things are not much changed
Present for the better.' In the interior of the country the
of the po- Morlacchi still inhabit the huts described by Fortis
a hundred years ago, without window or chimney,
black with smoke, and serving as in Ireland for
cottage and pig-stye in one, men women and
pulation.
Ch. I ] Jlisiory of Palmada. 183
beasts occupying the same tenement, with scarcely Modem
any partition to divide them. Ihe behei in witch-
craft and fairies is as strong as ever, l)rides are
still carried off by the favoured suitor and brought
home again after an interval to be formally es-
poused, and firearms are still supposed to be
efficacious against the demon of the storm. The
abuse aji^ainst which Fortis declaims of an extra-
vaxrant number of ecclesiastics and convents still
exists, and the number of the latter is scarcely
diminished since his time. Of the adult popula-
tion of the country not less than 33 per cent, are
non-productive, consisting of priests, monks, nuns,
idlers, mendicants, and rogues ', and consequently
it is no wonder that more than half the cultivable
land of the province should be lost to agriculture,
serving merely to afford scanty pasturage to sheep
and goats, and that Dalmatia should be the most
backward and the poorest province of the Austro-
Hungarian dominions.
During the past two years a fresh movement Distinc-
has taken place in Dalmatia which is driving the Latins and
most intelligent and cultivated of its inhabitants moderiT
to something like despair. In the preceding pages *'™®''
the dual element in the population of the country
' Schatzmeyer, La Dalmazia. Trieste, 1877. He divides
the adult population of Dalmatia thus : — Agriculturists, no°/o >
industrials, 3-75°/o> comnicrcialists and mariners, 2-50°/^^;
proprietors and government employes, i'^o^ I ^\ servants,
7-50°/o; and 'i restanti, vale a dire piii di 33V0 f'* '"''* y'*"
abitanti rai/jyreseidano una pojndazione tnijrroduttiva, chft con-
siste di preti monaci e vionache oziosi mendicanti malviventi,' &c.
184 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i.
which has existed since the seventh century, and
has survived all changes of government down to
our own days has been put forward as the
key to the proper understanding of Dalmatian
history. Side by side through all the alterna-
tions of Venetian and Hungarian rule the Latin
and the Slav have remained as two distinct
elements, mixing at the edges as it were, but
never fusing into one another. In the old Roman
cities the old Roman traditions, and no doubt the
old Ptoman stock survived the shock of Slavonic
conquest, and though the Croat was lord outside
the city walls and beyond the narrow territory
claimed by the citizens, within the gates the
Dalmatian people retained their old Koman
customs, governed themselves by the old Roman
law, and spoke the old Latin tongue, which they
still speak at the present day in its modern form.
Erroneous Thosc who havo not acquainted themselves with
idea as to ^ i • i i 1 t •
origin of Dalmatian history are apt to think that the Latni
this dis- 1 • 1 1 1 1 on • • i
tinction. fringe which borders the blavonic province has
derived its language and customs from Venice, to
which it was so long subject. Nothing can be
farther from the truth ; Zara Spalato Trail and
Ragusa were Latin cities when as yet Venice was
not existent, and they remained Latin cities
throughout the middle ages, with very little help
from her influence until the fifteenth century.
The Italian spoken in Dalmatia before that time
was not the Venetian dialect ; in some parts it
had a distinct form of its own, in others it re-
Ch. I] History of Dab)iatia. 185
sembled the form into wliicli Latin had passed in
the south of Italy or Umbria, and it was only
after 1420 that it began to assimilate itself
to the Italian of Lombardy and Venetia ^ At
Ragusa it never became Venetian at all, and
to this day resembles rather the Tuscan dialect
than any other, while the patois of the com-
mon people is a curious medley of Italian and
Illyric, Avith ti-aces of rustic Latin, Vlach or
Ilouman.
It is to the Latins of Dalmatia that we must Dalmatian
look for evidences of culture and intellectual pro- the Muidie
gress, and not to the Slavs. Those Croatian towns fiStoThe
that, like Sebenico, emerged from semi-barbarism *^'°^*
did so by being gathered within the Dalmatian Adherence
■t -i i .•,... , of the Dal-
pale, and by copying the institutions and customs matian
and adopting the language of the older cities of Latin tia-
Latin descent. Ilagusa, the Dalmatian Athens,
has sometimes been held up as an example of
Slavonic culture, but this is only partially the
case, for the history of Ragusa is uniformly that
of a Latin rather tlian a Slavonic city. The })ublic
acts were recorded either in Latin or Italian, never
in IDyric, except in case of correspondence witli a
Slavonic power ; Italian appears as the language
of the records and laws as early as the fourteenth
century-; the j)leadings in the law-courts in the
fifteenth century were not in Illyric but in a
' Vid. Luc. lib. vi. c. ii.
"^ Vid. Statutes of the Dogana of luigusa iu Eitelberger'a
Dalraatieii, p. 374, cd. 1884.
1 86 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i.
Rouman or debased Latin dialect^ ; the rules of
the lay confraternities of goldsmiths carpenters
and other trades are drawn up in Italian at least
as far back as the year 1306, an incontestable
proof that Italian was then the vernacular lan-
guage of the working classes ^ ; and when, in 1435,
the little republic set an example which many
greater states might worthily have imitated, and
instituted jDublic schools, it was from Italy that
she invited her professors. Cattaro, the remotest
of Dalmatian cities, which lived till the fifteenth
century under the shadow and protection of the
kings of Servia, preserved her Latin traditions as
jealously as the rest ; it was from Italy that she
invited her public teachers ever since the thir-
teenth century, and it was to the colleges of
Home Padua or Bologna, and not to the court of
Rascia, that an appeal was provided from her
municipal tribunal.
Venetian This Lcitin — it would be incorrect to call it
rule
favourable Italian — element which the Venetians at their
to the
Latins. adveut found already existing in Dalmatia natu-
rally became preponderant over the Slavonic
element when both jDarties passed under the rule
of an Italian power. Under the Venetian govern-
ment Italian was the official language throughout
the entire province, from the sea-shore to the
' De Diversis, ed. Brunclli, p. 70. Zara, 18S2 ; vid. also infra,
History of Ragusa, chapter xix.
^ Le confraternite laiclie in Dalmazia. G. Gelcicli, Eagusa,
1885, p. 30, &c.
Ch. I.] History of Dalviatia. 1S7
crests of the Vellebich mountains ; Italian officials
were appointed to every office in both urban and
mral districts, and the Illyric language was left to
boors and husl)andmen. And when the Austrians
came in and established a system of public in-
struction throughout the country it was given in
Italian, even in places where the population was
entirely Slavonic and the Italian language under-
stood by only a minority. This was clearly unjust,
and could not be expected to outlast the period of
Slavonic depression and servitude. All this is Prepon-
now changed : the achievement of independence skvs in
by Servia and Bulgaria, the successful revolt of times™
Bosnia and Herzegovina from the Turks, and the
virtual incorporation of those provinces into the
Austro-Hungarian Empire, have given an impetus
to the Slavs of Croatia and Dalmatia, and they
too have begun to dream of forming an independent
state, federally attached to the Austrian Empire,
but enjoying the same kind of autonomy as Hun-
gary. The Croats are agitating for the separation
of that tie which has bound them to the Hun-
garian monarchy since the days of King Coloman,
and among the Dalmatians a party has sprung up
which clamours for union with Croatia and a
share in her anticipated ' Home Rule.'
Unfortunately the fervour of their new-born Present
national life has brought the Croats of Dalmatia nisurof
into violent collision with the Latins. The Croat crortLn"'
party insists on the thorough Slavonizing of the
whole province, whether rural or urban ; tliey
1 88 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. I.
Demands demand that Illyric shall be the official language,
of the . , . .
Croat and the vehicle for all education, m the cities as
well as in the country, even in the higher grade
schools, and in the case of those whose mother-
tongue is Italian.
These demands of the Croat party probably
partake of the nature of a rebound from former
depression. It is hard to say what Dalmatia is
to gain by the extinction of her ancient Latin
culture, and the suppression of a native language
which is understood by most educated men in
western Euro23e, and which makes her merchants
and sailors at home in every port of the Mediter-
ranean. It is not as if the Illyric language were
not understood in the cities, and had to be in-
troduced there ; every educated person in Dal-
matia is bilingual, and though he may generally
talk Italian in his own family, he has also talked
Illyric from his cradle. The double language
places no barrier between the citizen and the
countryman, for both can talk Illyric, though
both may not be able to talk Italian. So far
as a common language goes there is nothing to
prevent the Latin and Slav from combining to
form a Dalmatian nation, and to a foreigner it
appears absurd that politics should have been
dragged into a social and educational question.
For there is no question in Dalmatia of ' Italia
irredenta,' as there is in Istria ; the Latin element
numbers only ten per cent, of the population, and
the merest visionary could hardly dream of an-
Cit. I.] History of Palnmlia. 189
nexation to Italy. All that the Latin population Demand
desire is that Italian should be retained as the Latin
lanoiiao-e of school instruction for those who
desire it and in those towns where Italian is
spoken by everybody, while in the iniral schools
the instruction might be given if preferred in
Illyric ; and in this demand it is difficult for an
outsider to see anything unreasonable ^
The educational question touches the Latins views of
alone, but the political question touches one branch party.
of the Slavs also. For the Dalmatian Slavs them-
selves are not of one family, nor at present of one
mind. Northern Dalmatia is peopled by Croats,
and Southern Dalmatia by Serbs, the division
between them being the river Cettina as it was
in the times of Heraclius and Porphyrogenitus ;
these two branches of the Slavonic race speak a
slightly different dialect of their common Illyric
language, and have different political aspirations,
for while the majority of the Croats are Roman
Catholics and are agitating for the annexation of
Dalmatia to Croatia, in order to form a single
powerful Slavonic province with an independent
constitution like that of Hungary, the majority of
the Serbs belong to the Greek Church, and are
bitterly opposed to the idea of sinking their nation-
ality in that of the Croats, and incline rather
towards union with Servia and MonteneOTo. The
"&
* It should 1)0 ol)Servetl that hy the Austrian law private
schools are reiKlercd practically impossible, and children have
no alternative but home education or the state school.
iQO History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i.
Thea«- commoii danger has for the present united the
party. Serbs and Latms in opposition to the Croats, and
they form what is known as the autonomous party
whose primary object is to defeat the union of
Dalmatia and Croatia and maintain their separate
national existence.
Eecent The Government however is fighting the battle
tionai laws of the Croats, by suppressing hostile municipal
of the boards and appointing others, and by manipu-
lating the elections as a paternal government well
knows how. It is the policy of Austria, which
seems preparing for itself a retreat from Germany
into the Slavonic lands of the Balkan peninsula,
to ingratiate itself with the Croats, and the Croats
have had their way in this and every question
between them and the Latins. Except in Zara,
a place which is so thoroughly Italian that the
change has been found impracticable, and one or
two places like Trail, where the Latin element was
strong enough to insist on the change being op-
tional with the parents of .the childi^en, the whole
education of the country is now conducted through
the lUyric language. Even in the Ginnasi or
schools immediately below the grade of the Uni-
versity it is the same, and those who wish to
study Italian literature must do so through the
medium of lUyric, even though Italian be their
mother-tongue. Slavonic literature there is next
to none ; it is a matter of the future ; it consists
at present of little more than one epic and a
mass of lyric poems and national songs, and is in-
Ch. I] Jlistory of Dalmatia. 191
ferior in interest to the ancient literature of Wales.
The most ardent Croat can hardly wish to substi-
tute this lor the ' Divina Comniedia,' and it is
scarcely possible to take him seriously when he
replies to the objection by telling you that the
Italian poets will still be read through the medium
of excellent translations into Illyiic. It remains
to be seen what will be the outcome of this mode
of education at second hand ; meanwhile it is
difHcult for a foreio-ner to view without recn-et
a needless attempt to extinguish an ancient cul-
ture and to silence an ancient language which can
boast an uninterrupted descent from the days of
the Roman Empire \
The political future of Dalmatia is necessarily
and inevitably Slavonic ; Dalmatia is the natural
sea-board of the great Slavonic populations behind
her ; but there is no reason why the regeneration
of the Slav should mean the extinction of the
' The violent measures by which the Government was obliged
to introduce this and similar changes favouring the Croat party,
make one suppose that they were unwelcome not only to the
Latins, but to the majority of the Dalmatians. I never talked
with a seafaring man who did not speak with bitterness of
the change, and dilate on the hardship of his children not
being taught Italian, a language in which a sailor can make
himself understood throughout the Levant, and in almost every
port of the Mediterranean. Indeed, when talking with gentle-
men who were extreme partizans on the side of the Croats, I
never found one who did not admit that the extinction of the
Italian language would be a loss to the country, although in
their public and collective capacity they are doing all they can
to bring about that of which in private they deplore the con-
tingency.
192 History of Dalmatia. [Ch. i.
Latin. The best hope for the formation of a
Dahnatian nation has in a poHcy of conciliation,
and not in the vain attempt to turn the Latins
into Croats. The race distinctions of Latin and
Croat will probably never be effaced, but there
is no reason why if they mutually respect one
another they should not live as contentedly
under one government as the various races of
England Scotland and Wales.
TABLE OF
THE KINGS OF HUNGARY
DOWN- TO THE TIME OF
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h
CHAPTER 11.
Dalmatia.
The Country, the People, and the Architecture, with a chrono-
logical list of the principal buildings.
Dalmatia though nommally a kmgdom has never
had any mdependent national existence. It has
never since its first appearance on the stage of
history been the home of a single united nation, and
it is not so much a distinct country as a convenient
geographical expression. Even its geographical
boundaries have been differently fixed by different
writers and at different times ; for while Pliny ^ gives
to Liburnia the coast from the Piver Arsia in Istria
round the head of the Quarnero as far as the Titius
or Kerka at Sebenico, and to Dalmatia the coast
southwards to Lissus on the Macedonian frontier,
Constantme Porphyrogenitus ^ in the tenth century
^ ' Nunc finis Italiae fluvius Arsia,' lib. iii. c. xix. ' Liburniae
finis et initium Dalniatiae Scardona in amne eo.' v. c. xxii.
^ De admo. Impo. c. xxx. He divides the theme as follows : —
(i) Diolcea, from Dyrrhachium and Antivari to Decatera (Cat-
taro), and inland to Servia.
(2) Terhunia, from Cattaro to Ragusa and inland to Servia,
corresponding to the district of Canali.
(3) Zachlumia (^« = behind, Chlum the name of a certain moun-
tain), from Kagusa to the Narenta ; afterward the Serb duchy of
O 2
196 Boundaries of Dalmatia. [Ch. ii.
confined the theme of Dahnatia to the coast south
of the Cettma, which enters the sea at Ahuissa.
In the middle ages after the uTuption of the Croats
and Sei-bs the name Dalmatian was for a long time
confined to the Latm inhabitants of a few maritime
towns and islands, the whole of the country beyond
then* narrow territory being considered Croatian^.
In modern times Dalmatia is the strip of lowland
or sub-mountainous country between the Alps and
the sea, as well as the whole archipelago of islands
that lie off its shores, reaching from Albania on the
south to the opening of the gulf of Quarnero on the
north, and including the islands of Pago and Arbe
within that gulf For this length of nearly 300
miiles it has an average width of some twenty or
twenty-five miles, varying from barely a mile at
Cattaro to not quite forty miles at Knin. It is
divided from Croatia Bosnia Herzeo-ovma and
o
Montenegro by the high range of the Dinaric Alps
Chulm or Chelmo, known also as the Primorje (or sea-coast) of
Stagno.
(4) Pagaaia, from the Nareuta to the Cettina at Almissa,
known afterwards as the Craina, or the Primorie par excellence^ the
country of the Pagan Narentines, to which belonged the islands
of ITelita, Curzola, Brazza and Lesina, nearly deserted then, but
used as pastures.
(5) Croatia, northwards from the Cettina round the Quarnero,
as far as Albona in Istria.
Pliny's Dalmatia included the first four of these divisions and
part of the fifth, as far as Sebenico. The rest of Porjjhyrogenitus'
Ci'oatia is Pliny's Liburnia.
^ ' ladra, Tragurium, et Spalato quae, cum insulis, Dalmatarum
vel llomanorum nomen retinuerunt.' Luc. de Regn. lib. ii. c. xiii.
]). 89, et passim.
Ch. II.] Dalmatia7i Scenery. 197
"wliich go by various names in various parts of their
extent, between which and the Adriatic the land
lies in a succession of ridges running parallel to the
mountains and the sea with intervening valleys and
plains. As the general level falls westwards the
sea enters between the last parallel ridges, and the
result is that strange shoal of long narrow islands,
the crests of half sunken mountains, which frino-es
the coast of Dalmatia, and which we knew so well
in our school atlas.
The natural scenery of Dalmatia is as singular
as its geographical formation, and is in the strongest
contrast to that of the opposite shores of Italy.
The luxuriantly wooded mountains of Umbria, and
the lao-unes and marshes of Romag^na and Yenetia,
are confronted in Dalmatia by stony deserts and
mountains of an arid whiteness which at the first
view seem covered with new fallen snow ; while
the muddy sea that beats on the flat shores and
harbourless coast of Italy is exchanged on the
opposite side for sapphu'e depths of crystal clear-
ness which interlace an intricate network of natural
breakwaters and penetrate into countless havens
of matchless security. To the traveller from
central and western Europe the sterility and
barrenness of Dalmatia suggest the deserts of
Arabia rather than any part of his own con-
tinent. It is true that there is some appearance
of fertility in some of tlie islands, on the Riviera
of Trail, and at the entrance of the Bocche, but
still the general impression which the country leaves
198 Dalmatian Scenery. [Ch. 11.
on the mind is one of bare white mountains, and
fields covered with loose splintered rocks which the
land ' grows ' faster than they can be picked off it,
although the great heaps that divide field from field
cover more ground than they leave exposed for
cultivation. In those parts of the interior where
the mountains recede from the coast there are
extensive peaty moors and unwholesome swamps,
seed-beds of agues and fevers which are extremely
prevalent throughout the province. These moors
and swamps are due to the curious conformation of
the surface, which is honeycombed with pits punch-
bowls or basins of all sizes, "some so small that you
may jump over them, and others many miles in
diameter, which are known by the various names
of foibe, doline, or polje. Into these basins the rain
washes down all the vegetable earth, and forms an
alluvial stratum which is the cultivable soil of
Dalmatia. At the bottom of each little crater is
a potato bed or a patch of corn land, and the large
plains which form the floor of the greater punch-
bowls are the best pasture lands. From these
hollows there is often no natural outlet, or none
that is sufficient to carry off the drainage, and
violent or long continued rain often reduces them
to the condition of a lake. With the return of diy
weather they become dry land again, and the damp
effluvium from the mud and decaying vegetation is
extremely pestilential \ But the malaria is not
' These singular hollows in the soil of Dalmatia and Istria have
Cn. II.] Dahnatian Scenery. 199
confined to the interior : many of the maritmie
toMTis enjoy an equally bad reputation. Sebenico is
said not to be free from malaria, nor Trail either,
though the air there is more wholesome than it
used to be ; but Scardona Nona and Ossero are
reoTLilar hot-beds of ao-ue and tertian fevers, and till
a few years ago Pola and Parenzo in Istria were no
better. It is curious that all these places are old
Roman towns, wliich once supported large and
flourishing communities, and which it may be pre-
sumed were in ancient times wholesome to live
in. Pola has become so once more since the
establishment of the arsenal there and the enormous
increase of its population with corresponding at-
tention to sanitation ; and at the other places I
have named the cause of malaria is patent enough
and so is the remedy ; for behind or around their
walls lie festering in the sun filthy deposits of mud
and sewage, half sea and half marsh, that exhale
deadly mists at sunrise and sunset to which no
stranger can expose himself with impunity, and of
which the effect may be seen in the ghastly com-
plexions and lack-lustre eyes of the natives.
The absence of running water lends another
element of strangeness to the landscape. There
are some few rivers of considerable size, and after
rain there are mischievous torrents that wash away
the scanty soil and run dry in a few hours, but
there are no brooks or springs, and most of the
never been satisfactorily accounted for. Vid. Ecclus, Nouvelle
Geographic Univ. vol. iii. p. 216, &c.
200 Dalmatia : Agriculture. [Ch. ll.
people have no water to diink but such as falls
from the skies and is collected in cisterns. The
limestone rock of which the country is composed,
honeycombed with chasms and fissures, swallows up
the rainfall, and streams plunge into Kara^oOpa as
they do in Greece, continuing underground for many
miles and bursting forth again into daylight at a great
distance oflP with the volume of a full-grown river.
From so unpromising a soil it might seem hopeless
to expect much return, and yet Dalmatia is literally
a land of oil and wine. The oil may be compared
favourably with that of Lucca, and however poorly
the traveller may fare otherwise he will never have
reason to complain of the wine. An immense
quantity is exported annually from Spalato and
elsewhere into France, and Englishmen would be
surprised to learn how much Dalmatian wine they
have drunk under the name of claret since the
partial failure of the Bordeaux vintage. When
the results achieved by Dalmatian farmers with
their present appliances are considered, there seems
no reason to doubt the capabilities of the soil under
better conditions, for their plough is a simpler in-
strument than that described by Yirgil, and pro-
bably the same as that employed by the ancient
Illyrians in the time of king Agron before the
Komans first crossed the Adriatic ^
In the maritime cities of the mainland, and on
most of the islands the traveller may well imagine
himself in Italy ; for the lang-uage, architecture,
^ Vid. illustration, Fig. 17, in cli. vi.
C'H. II.] TJic Dalmatians: Latin and Slav. 201
manners and dress of the citizens are the same as
on the other side of the Adriatic. It is not among
the Latins that he will find anything of that
brilliant and picturesque costume for which Dal-
matia is famous. It is the Slav who arrays himself
in broidered garments and blazes with silver and
gilded ornaments, and preserves in his atth^e the
mao-nificence and bizarrerie of the middle ao-es. In
some parts of South Dalmatia, especially on the
bocche di Cattaro, the national costume is worn
by all classes just as it is in Montenegro where
the Prince and Princess and their family wear it
habitually ; and in some jD^-rts of Northern Dal-
matia, on the island of Pago for instance, the
fashion has set in for the upper classes to give up
the dress of the ' borghese ' and wear the national
garb, which in point of appearance certainly carries
the day over the humdrum coat waistcoat and
trousers of Western Europe. Interesting costume,
however, is confined to the mainland and to the
country districts, except on market days when the
country folk come into the towns to sell their
poultry, eggs, and other farm produce, and make
their purchases of necessaries or finery in the gay
little shojDS that line the narrow streets. On the
islands there is little or no costume to be seen, for
though, AA'ith the exception of Veglia Ossero and
Arbe, they were repeopled by Slavs, and have no
Latin descent to boast of, their long subjection to
Venice and the sea-faring life led by most of their
male population, which brings them into constant
202 The Dalmatians : Latin and Slav. [Ch. ii.
contact with Italy, has pretty thoroughly Italianized
them in manner, costume, and language ^ Of all
the towns in Dalmatia none will make the visitor
fancy himself in Italy more completely than Lesina,
a place which was entirely repeopled by Slavs who
occupied the deserted site of an ancient Greek
colony, but which, nevertheless, seems less Slavonic
than many towns of Latin origin. Of all the
Dalmatians the islanders have the reputation of
being the most intelligent, industrious, and pro-
sperous, and the standard of civilization is certainly
higher among them than among the peasantry of
the mainland. One never sees on the islands the
rags and dirt that are common among the Morlacchi
of the interior ; on the contrary, there is a general
air of comfort and respectability, and though no
doubt poverty exists there as it does everywhere,
it does not seem to exist in an extreme form.
Though the soil is probably worse on the islands
than on the continent it is better cultivated, and
the people have the sea to help them to a livelihood
as well as the land. Many of the islands have
a considerable trade in ship-building ; Curzola is
unrivalled in the make of small craft, while at
Lussin-piccolo large vessels of 1200 or 1300 tons
are constructed, and indeed in the number and
tonnage of the ships launched annually from her
yards Lussino is inferior to Trieste and Fiume alone
among the ports of Austro-Hungary.
^ In the remoter villages and districts of the islands, howevei', we
found Italian was only understood by the men, and not by all of them.
Ch. II.] The Dalmatians : Latin and Slav. 203
As one turns one's back on the sea-coast and
advances into the interior towards the old Turkish
frontier, both country and people become ruder and
less cultivated. In the few miserable towns of in-
land Dalmatia there are no doubt a certain number
of residents of a better class, ' im^oiegati ' and others,
among whom the traveller will find accomplished
and highly educated gentlemen, but they seem lost
amid the semi-barbarism that surrounds them. The
huts in which the Morlacchi live are the same as
those described by Fortis; the women are strange
half-savage looking creatures, with elf locks hanging
over theii' weather-beaten faces, dressed in thick
embroidered leggings that give them the appearance
of Indian squaws, and among the men are to be
seen rags and tatters, and sometimes half-naked
figures with nothing but a blanket to shield them
from the weather as they tend then* flocks on the
bleak highland moors. Yet, poor as they are, most
of them appear on festival days with silver coins
beads and buttons hung so thickly over their
wTetched rags that as they journey on their little
asses or ponies over the mountains to the fair, they
blaze in the sunshine like a troop of cuirassiers.
The contrast between this idle wealth and the
misery of the tatters below serves but to give a
deeper tinge to their barbarism.
The architecture of Dalmatia has so much in it
that is peculiar and distinctive that it is entitled to
rank as a style by itself among the various national
204 Dabnatian Architecticre, [Ch. II.
styles of mediaeval Europe, It is entirely urban,
and confined to the maritime cities, for the sea
has in all ages been the parent of Dalmatian
civilization ; the history of the country is in fact the
history of the maritime towns, and it was in them
alone that art and letters found a congenial soil and
took root. The Slavonic conquerors came in as
barbarians with everything to learn and nothing to
teach ; they gradually received the religion and in a
rude way imitated the art of the Byzantine Empu^e
to which they paid a nominal subjection, but they
never developed an art of their own, and the silver-
smith's work which has been produced in purely
Slavonic districts in modern times is but little re-
moved from the Byzantine art of the eighth and
ninth century \ The Dalmatians of the maritime
cities on the contrary were brought into contact with
the nations of western Europe, and above all with
Italy, and though their architecture bears traces of
Byzantine influence as late as the twelfth century,
they developed after that period a native art of
their own, and have left us a series of architectural
monuments not inferior in interest to those of any
country of Europe. Their style is principally based
on that of Italy — it is only natural that it should be
so — but nevertheless it has about it something dis-
tinctive that is not altogether Italian, shewing that
the Dalmatians were not mere copyists. Something
there is about it that reminds one of Northern
^ E. g. the silver plate iii the convent of Savina ; vid. infra,
ch. xxiii.
Ch. 11] Dalmatian Architecttire. 205
Gothic, whicli may be due to tlie influence of Plun-
garian rule, for though the Hungarians were not an
artistic people themselves they employed artists
from France and Germany, and some masters of
those nations may have followed the track of Hun-
garian conquest in Dalmatia, It is said that among
the various ' maestri ' whom the Dalmatian cities or
the various confraternities of artizans from time to
time invited from other countries, the painters
carvers masons and master architects were com-
monly brouglit from Hungary and Austria^. Other
elements there are that may be traced to the in-
fluence of Slav or Albanian ; for though the Slav
developed no art of his own, he no sooner came
down to the coast and mixed with the Latins either
as a settler within then- walls, or by imitating, as
at Sebenico, their municipal constitutions, and
gaining for his Croatian city admission to the
Dalmatian pale, than he shewed a capacity for art
which proved his backwardness to be due only
to the want of good example. Many of the
Dalmatian artists whose names have come down
to us seem by their names to have been Slavs,
and others were Albanians, of that still more
ancient stock in which it is supposed the old Illy-
^ ' I salariati {muesLri) sono per lo piu chiamati d' Italia ; i notari
per5, i trombettieii ed i musici assai piu spesso d'Ungheria,
e qualche volta anche dalle provincie dell' Austria centrale, I
doratori, i fabbro-fenai, i pittori e gli iutagliatori dall' Unglieria,
6 dair Austria, donde s' ebbero anclie dcgli scalpclliui e dei maestri
architetti.' Le Confraternite laiche in Dalmazia, p. 25. G. Gelcich.
Ragusa, 1885.
2o6 Dalmatian Architechire, [Ch. ii.
rian race survives. Of these the work of the
Albanian is the most singular ; that of the Slav
is fresh and vigorous but not especially character-
istic, his talent being for adopting and imitating
rather than for originating ; that of the Northerner,
be he Hungarian, Teuton or Gaul, is tempered by
southern influences till only a faint flavour of pe-
culiarity remains ; and the work of one and all is
practically based on that of Italy, the country to
which the Dalmatian cities looked ever for support
and instruction, and from which they often invited
artists to come among them as they did their
podesta or their schoolmaster even during the
period of Hungarian dominion.
The history of Dalmatian architecture is an
epitome of that of southern Europe. In the palace
of Diocletian at Spalato we have one of the earliest,
perhaps the earliest, step towards that new depar-
ture in architecture which resulted in the devel-
opment of the styles of modern Europe. Here
we see the first relaxation of the strict rules of
ancient classic art ; the proportions of the different
members of the order are varied and arbitrary ; some
members are omitted entirely ; new forms of orna-
ment, such as the zigzag, which was to play so large
a part in Norman architecture, make their first
appearance ; and the arches are made to spring
immediately from the capitals without an inter-
vening entablature. Other irregularities occur in
this building which shew the decline of the age
towards barbarism, and for perhaps the first time in
Ch. II.] Dalmatian Architecture. 207
classic architectm-e columns and fragments of older
buildings are adapted and used up second-hand in
the new one\ It is impossible to overrate the
interest of this building to the student either of
ancient or modern art. To the one it will be the
last effort of the dying art of antiquity, still ma-
jestic in its proportions, still dwarfing into insig-
nificance by its huge masonry the puny works of
later ages, which are already crumbling into ruin
while it seems destined to stand for eternity, but
at the same time fallen from the perfection of the
classic age, and stamped with the seal of returning
barbarism. To the other it will seem the new bu^th
of that rational and unconventional mode of build-
ing in which the restless and eager spmt of the
regenerated and repeopled Roman world has found
free scope for its fancy and invention ; which places
fitness before abstract beauty, delights to find
harmony in variety, and recognizes grace in more
than one code of proportions. Both will be right ;
the palace of Spalato marks the era when the old
art died in giving bu^th to the new.
The date of Diocletian's building is from 284
to 305. Of the architecture of the next five cen-
turies Dalmatia has not a single perfect example
remaining. In Istria and Friuli, however, the
continuity of examples is better preserved, the
irruptions of the barbarians having been less dis-
astrously destructive there than on the eastern side of
^ This seems to me obviously the case ; I do uot kuow whether
it has been observed before. Vid, infra, ch. xi.
2o8 Dalmatian Architecture. [Ch. ii.
the Adriatic. At Parenzo still stands the magnificent
basilica of Euphrasius, built between 535 and 543.
At Grado the duomo of Elias was completed be-
tween 571 and 586, and we may still admire the
wondrous pavements and grieve over the shattered
capitals of the original building. The magnificent
basilica of S. Maria di Canneto at Pola has un-
happily disappeared, and its rich columns of marble
and oriental alabaster must be looked for at Venice,
but at Trieste there are still some remains of early
Byzantine architecture in the apse of the church of
S. Giusto.
It is a wide bound from the architecture of Sj^al-
ato to that of these examples, so wide indeed that
in the interval a new art had time to arise and
perfect itself The church of Euphrasius is a
specimen of the Byzantine style at its best.
Classic tradition survives in the basilican plan,
the long drawn ranks of serried marble columns,
and in the horizontal direction of the leading lines.
But the capitals with theu^ crisply rafiled foliage,
emphasized by dark holes pierced with a drill
which recall the fragility and brilliancy of the shell
of the sea echinus, belong to a new school of
sculpture, and the massive basket capitals which
are found among them, as well as the second
capital or impost block which surmounts them all,
were novelties in architecture at the time of their
erection. These buildings belong to the best school
of Byzantine art, and were erected at the same
period as those at Ravenna and Constantinople,
Ch. II.] Dabnatian Architecture. 20C)
which they resemble in every detail ; and in the
church of Pai'enzo especially one might imagine
oneself in the ancient capital of the exarchs.
Dalmatia, as I have said, has nothmg to shew-
that belongs to this period. There must have been
buildings in this style of equal importance with
those just mentioned, and the half-excavated basilica
of Salona seems to have been worthy to rank with
those of Istria and the lagunes. But in the seventh
century the province was swept by barbarian hordes,
the cities were depopulated and laid in ruin, and
when the trembling Latins ventured once more to
return and inhabit theii' desolated homes they found
their ancient monuments prostrate, and had to
reconstruct them little by little as well as their
poverty and weakness enabled them.
The series of Dalmatian examples begins at the
opening of the ninth century with a remarkable
class of buildings of which the church of S. Donato
at Zara is the most important. From Parenzo and
Grado to S. Donato is a wider bound than the last,
and the change is proportionately greater. We
find ourselves now landed in a much ruder age ;
the traditions not only of good architectural design
but even of good building construction are for-
gotten ; the buildings are generally small and the
masonry of the roughest. It was beyond the
humble powers of the builder to make capitals or
columns for himself, and his only resource was to
pUfer them from the surrounding ruins of which
there was then no lack. The columns were used
VOL. I. p
2IO Dalmatian Architecture. [Ch. ii.
just as they came to hand ; some were longer and
some thicker than the others, and they were crowned
with capitals that never belonged to them, and were
often much too small to fit them. If the supply
of capitals ran short a fragment of a cornice or a
moulded base upside down was made to serve
instead, and in at least one instance the architect
has not hesitated to place the square capital of an
ancient pilaster upon a cylindrical column, with the
sublimest indifference to the grotesqueness of the
effect.
In the plan of then- churches and such simple
bits of original detail as the builders of the period
trusted themselves to execute we find the influence
of Byzantine art still governing them. The Eastern
Empu^e was still nominally supreme in Dalmatia,
and remained so till the twelfth century ; from time
to time its power was still felt in the Adriatic, and
Venice herself at this period professed submission to
the ' King of the Komans,' and borrowed her art
from Constantinople. In a rude way and generally
on a miniature scale the two classes of Byzantine
churches, the domed church and the basilica, are
represented in the buildings of Dalmatia erected
during the remainder of the Byzantine period from
the ninth to the twelfth century. Of the basilican
type are the churches of S. Pietro vecchio S. Lor-
enzo and S. Domenica at Zara, S. Barbara at Trali,
S. Stefano and S. Giacomo in Feline at Ragusa, to
which may be added that of Muggia vecchia near
Trieste. The churches at Ragusa consist of simple
Ch. II.] Dalmatian Architecture. 2 1 1
naves ; S. Pietro vecchio at Zara has the peculiarity
of a double nave divided by a central arcade ; and
the others have a nave with two side aisles. They
are generally covered with waggon vaults strength-
ened by flat ribs of stone at each column, and the
vaults are finished with a semidome at the east
end. The gi^ound plan, nevertheless, is not apsidal
but square, and the corners are filled up at the
springing level of the semidome with little squinches
which bring the square plan to a semicircle from
which the semidome rises. This is a peculiarity I
have observed in no other country, and the Dal-
matians were so fond of it that the aisles of
S. Lorenzo at Zara are vaulted with a succession
of semidomes constructed in this way facing side-
ways to the central nave. The largest basilican
church {yao'i Spo/niKo?) of this period of which any
traces remain in Dalmatia is the duomo of Zara,
S. Anastasia, which is described by Porphp-ogenitus
as decorated with painting and paved with mosaic,
and constructed with columns of white marble and
cipollino, which were no doubt the spoils of ancient
buildings. If, as seems likely, the apse and the
eastern part of the crypt of the present duomo are
parts of this basilica, and have survived the re-
building of the greater part in the thii'teenth
century, the older church probably dated from the
ninth or tenth century, for the work is too rude
to be attributed to the palmy days of Byzantine
art in the sixth or seventh. Other examples of
basDicas of this period are to be seen in Istria, at
p 2
212 Dalmatian Architecture. [Ch. li.
S. Lorenzo in Pasenatico, and in the duomo of
Trieste.
Of domed churches there are several varieties.
At Nona the churches of S. Nicolo and S. Croce are
small cruciform buildings, barrel vaulted, apsidal,
and with a central cupola rudely carried on pen-
dentives, the invention of which feature is the
crowning triumph of Byzantine art, and the middle
of the church is carried up so as to form a kind
of central tower which conceals the exterior of the
cupola. The size of these buildings is generally
insignificant ; S. Croce was the cathedral of Nona,
but its dome is only about eight feet in diameter,
and each arm of the cross is only about eight feet
long. At Cattaro the two churches of S. Maria and
S. Luca, which though rebuilt in later times probably
retain their original plan, have cupolas rising from
the centre of an elongated nave which finishes with
an eastern apse.
The ancient baptistery of Zara and the churches
of S. Trinita at Spalato, and S. Orsola at Zara of
which only the foundation exists, are still more
curious in plan; they consist of a circular central
space or nave covered with a cupola, which is sur-
rounded by six apses applied to the external drum,
and opening to the central space by round arches.
At S. Orsola one of these apses is interrupted to
form a short nave ending with a campanile. I cannot
but think that the singular plan of these churches is
derived from that of the duomo of Spalato, and
affords one instance among many of the influence ex-
Ch. II.] Dalmatian Architecture. 213
ercised on Dalmatian art from first to last by the
buildings of Diocletian's palace. The baptistery at
Zara is polygonal externally like the temple, from
which it difters only by being hexagonal instead of
octagonal, and having all the niches round instead of
round and square alternately (comp. Figs, i and 29).
Of the date of these buildmgs all that can be said
with certainty is that they were built at some time
between the year 800 and the year 1 1 00. During
this long period architecture stood still here as it
did pretty well throughout all Europe. Some of
the buildings are ruder than the rest and contain no
original details, and these may be attributed to the
earlier part of this dark period ; to this class S.
Pietro vecchio may certauily be joined. Others
contain not only fragments from old Roman build-
ings, but also capitals and cornices carved originally
for their place, the first timid efforts of native Dal-
matian art, and these may safely be placed towards
the end of the period ; of this class S. Domenica at
Zara is the best example. But it would be dan-
gerous to attempt to fix the date of each building
more precisely.
Fortunately the finest church of this period
that has descended to us is also the one about
whose date there is least doubt. The grand round
church of S. Donato at Zara was undoubtedly
built about the year 810 by Donato bishop of
Zara, and in its rugged smiplicity and elephan-
tine proportions it supplies an admirable illustra-
tion both of the rudeness and the promise of
214 Dalmatian ArchitectiLve, [Ch. ii.
that age. It will be fully described in the next
chapter.
With the opening of the twelfth century new
political factors began to operate in Dalmatia; the
last tie which bound that country to Byzantium
was severed, Venice and Hungary were left to con-
tend for possession of it, and its architecture was
for the future based on the styles of Italy or Ger-
many instead of that of Constantinople. Venetian
art, it is true, still continued to cling to Byzantine ex-
ample, but it was Byzantine with a difference, while
the art of France and Germany which had been
adopted by the Hungarians, and that of Lombardy
also, belonged to the other branch of round-arched
architecture, the Komanesque. The influence of
Venice was predominant at Bagusa and in the
islands, where her possession was seldom disturbed
during the twelfth, thirteenth, and first half of the
fourteenth centuries, and it is in precisely those parts
of the province that the impress of Byzantine feeling
remained longest, though even there Bomanesque
details began from an early date to make their way.
The transition from pure Byzantine work towards
the round-arched styles of Lombardy or Germany,
in other words from the eastern to the western form
of Bomanesque architecture, may be observed in the
interesting church of S. Giovanni Battista at Arbe.
There we have the old basilican nave and aisles with
closely set columns and with the impost block or
second capital above the first, but the apse with its
semi-circular ambulatoiy, and the narrow arches
Examples of
Early Dalmatian Work
FlaU I
fiV • "2. . N/ o NA . S- Croc* .
'w%. ■■■
I 1
TG J
Sprug^e tC' ftic tu-imi t an Jon
Ch. II.] Dahnatian Architecture. 215
opening into it, with their coarsely carved capitals,
have nothing about them that can be referred to the
art of Constantinoj^le, and remind one rather of the
Romanesque art of France or England.
In Plate I. I have collected a number of examples
to illustrate the progress of Dalmatian art from
the end of the seventh century to the end of the
twelfth. The panel from Ragusa, Fig. i, has a
thoroughly Byzantme character, which disappears
gi^adually in the succeeding examples, though there
are traces of it in Fig. 7, which is probably coeval
with Fig. 9, and if so dates from 1 180-1 190.
Of the part played by Hungary in the modifica-
tion of Dalmatian art it is difficult to speak very
precisely. At the time of then- first coming into
the country the Hungarians were a much ruder
people than the Dalmatians of the cities, among
whom the arts and letters had already begun to re-
cover themselves : they were perhaps even ruder
than the Croatians, living as they did in huts in
winter and tents in summer, and possessing scarcely
any buildings of more durable materials \ To the
Latin races the Hungarians seemed barbarians down
to a much later day : their unpolished manners and
overbearing conduct, their drunkenness and ^harhari
costumi' made them odious to the Neapolitans of
the fourteenth century-. On the capital of the
^ Vid. supra, p. 40, the account of Otto Fiisingcnsis who describes
the Hungarians of his own day, c. 1 156-8, half a century after
their arrival in Dahnatia.
^ Vid. supra, p. 99 note, extract from letter by Petrarch.
2i6 Dalmatian ArcJiitectm^e. [Ch. ii.
ducal palace at Venice, of which the poles are
occupied by the Greek and Latin, the Hungarian
figures with his tall cap and untrimmed locks among
Turks Tartars Goths Egyptians and Persians ; and
to the Ragusan Ludovico Tubero, writing about
the year 1500, the Hungarians are still a Scythian
race, to whose overbearing pretensions it is safer to
oppose a bold front than to make concessions \
Such a people as the Hungarians were at the time
of their conquest of Dalmatia in 1102 were not
likely to bring with them new artistic ideas to
influence the art of a people who were superior to
themselves in the arts of civilized life : and though
their luxury and extravagant living of which we hear
in the middle of the thirteenth century^ may imply
some advance towards refinement of manners, we
find them after their country had been desolated by
the Tartars dependent on artists from France and
Germany for the reconstruction of their principal
buildings. Villars de Honnecourt, architect of the
cathedral of Cambrai, was in Hungary directly after
the retreat of the Tartars, and is su^^posed to have
built the cathedrals of Gran and Kaschau and the
church of S. Elizabeth at Marburg^. French in-
' ' Quandoquidem Hungavis tutius est vel pervicaciter obluctari
quam eorum cedere contumaciae. Quoniam naturae ut plerique
Scytharum magis ferocis quam fortis animi sunt.' Lud. Cervarius.
Tubero, vol. i. p. 180.
^ Thomas Arcliid. vid. supra, ^. 65.
^ He tells us on one leaf of his sketch-book, ' when I was
drawing this, I was sent for into Hungary, and therefore I like
it all the better;' and on another page containing a sketch of
Ch. II.] Dalmatian Architecture. 217
fluence may be detected in several other churches of
Hungary, and the west portal, as well as sundry-
details of the curious church of Jak, has a look of
French design about it. Elsewhere throughout
Hungary the influence of German Komanesque is
plainly seen in the earlier architecture, and that of
German Gothic in the later, and it is difiicult to
trace any of the artistic ideas of Hungarian archi-
tecture to a distinctly Hungarian source^.
But, if the Hungarians were not an artistic people
themselves, they gave abundant employment to
artists from other countries, and it is probably to
the influence of these foreigners, from whatever
country they came, that the peculiarities of Dalma-
tian architecture should be attributed when they
cannot be traced to Italian sources. One pecu-
liarity, however, must be accounted for by the con-
ditions and sentiment of the Dalmatians themselves,
and that is their persistence in the Romanesque
style long after it had passed into Gothic in most
parts of Europe. In France and England round-
arched gave way to pointed architecture at the end
of the twelfth century ; in Germany the new ideas
took root more slowly, but Gothic architecture
a pavement, he says, 'I was once in Hungarj', and remained there
many a day. There I saw a chnrch i^avement made in such a
manner as this.' Sketch Book of Villars de Hounecoui't, plates
19, 29, &c.
^ Elaborate drawings of several Hungarian churches may be
seen in the Mittelaltelichc Kunstdenkmale des Ostcrreifhischen
Kaiserstaates, by Heider, Eitelbergcr, and Hieser. Stuttgardt,
1858. As to Hungarian architecture vid. cliapter xiv, infra.
2i8 Dalmatian Architecture. [Ch. ii.
began to supersede Komanesqiie about 1 230 or 1 240 ;
in Italy churches arose between 1220 and 1300 at
Assisi, Venice, Verona, Siena, Orvieto, and Florence,
in which Italian Gothic reached its fullest develop-
ment ; but in Dalmatia we find the people con-
tentedly working on at Romanesque architecture
through the whole of the thirteenth and weU into
the fourteenth century before any signs of transition
to the pointed style begin to manifest themselves.
This singular unchangeableness may be due to
several causes, among which it is natural to place
first the backwardness of a remote and jDoor country,
hemmed in on one side by semi-barbarous kingdoms,
and subject to distant powers, which, whether Vene-
tian or Hungarian, never showed any disposition to
encourage and promote the well-being of the pro-
vincials for their own sake. Something also may be
put down to the influence of Italy, a country in
which the round arch was never entirely abandoned,
especially in the brick buildings of Lombardy.
Nearly half a century after the Gothic west front
of Siena was completed the campanile of St. Got-
tardo at Milan was erected in a round-arched style,
differing but little from the earlier Komanesque.
But the principal reason was no doubt the actual
preference of the Dalmatians for the earlier style,
and the influence which never failed to impress
them of Diocletian's mighty building at Spalato.
Down to the last they built their doorways with
the straight lintel below a semicircular arch and
tympanum, of which the Porta Aurea and the Porta
Ch. II.] Dalmatia7i Architecture. 219
Ferrea furnished the prototypes, and they never
tired of imitating: with various alterations and
modifications the round waggon roof of the temple
of ^sculapius.
From this it may be gathered how difficult it is
to g-uess with anything like certainty the date of
any Komanesque building in Dalmatia, and how
largely the evidence of the building itself, which in
other countries is a better guide even than docu-
mentary evidence, requires in this to be fortified
and confirmed by records. Fortunately Dalmatian
architects have been tolerably liberal in the matter
of mscriptions and shields with armorial bearings ;
and as the heraldry of the country has been well
studied and illustrated, a clue is often obtained in
that way to a date which is surprisingly different
from what the building itself would have suggested :
but even this is sometimes wanting, and nothing
but vague traditions exist to help the puzzled anti-
quary out of his difficulties.
The Romanesque architecture of Dalmatia bursts
suddenly into life ^\dth the splendid campanile and
chapter-house of the convent of S. Maria at Zara,
the work of King Coloman and his repudiated wife
the abbess Vekenega between 1 102 and mi. They
correspond in style with the contemporary Koman-
esque of Lombardy and Germany. The church of
S. Grisogono at Zara, which, though its date is
disjiuted, seems to belong to the latter part of this
century and to have been consecrated in 11 75, is a
very refined and highly finished piece of Lombard
2 20 Dalmatian Architecture. [Ch. ii.
architecture resembling the churches at Lucca. At
the end of the twelfth century we have the magni-
ficent campanile of Arbe, with the three other steeples
its satellites in the same style, a triumph of
Romanesque architecture. Contemporary with this
are the duomo and other buildings at Veglia, in
which Byzantine feeling is still perceptible. The
duomo of Zara, which belongs to the thirteenth
century, has an archaic look that would mislead the
unwary to attribute it to the eleventh or twelfth ;
and the cathedral of Trail, with its superb portals
and sombre nave, which was building at the same
time as that of Zara, is round-arched and Roman-
esque, though in beauty of design and technical
merit it does not lag behind the Gothic work of its
age. I shall have occasion to jDoint out the corre-
spondence of this building with examples of archi-
tecture in Hungary (vid. chapter xiv).
The great work of the fourteenth century is the
campanile of Spalato, which was begun probably
soon after 1300, and was not finished when the
century expired, the work having been interrupted
for a long time after the death of Maria of Hungary,
the widow of Charles II of Naples. This wonderful
tower, begun some thirty years later than the angel
choir at Lincoln, and barely finished before Brunel-
leschi started upon his dome at Florence, is through-
out of good honest Romanesque work that might
have been put together in the twelfth century, with
columns carried on the backs of lions, Corinthianiz-
ing capitals, billet moulds, and acanthus foliage, as
Ch. II.] Dalmatian Architechire. 221
if the architect had never heard of any other style.
It is remarkable also how many of the ornamental
details are copied from those of Diocletian's work,
m the midst of which the tower stands.
Contemporaneously with this round-arched work
the pointed arch begins to appear occasionally \ and
with the beginning of the fifteenth century came the
final Venetian occupation of Dalmatia, and Roman-
esque architecture finally melted away and made
room for the contemporary art of the mistress city.
The upper central parts of the fronts of the duomo
and S. Grisogono at Zara are probably the latest
instances of the expiring round-arched style, w^hich
actually prolonged its existence into the fifteenth
century, when on the other side of the Adriatic
the Italian Renaissance had fah-ly set in, and
round-arched architecture had once more come into
fashion. Venice, however, did not accept the Re-
naissance so soon as central Italy, and the archi-
tecture which she brought with her into Dalmatia
was that form of Gothic which she had in-
vented and refined, and which as a domestic style
has never been surpassed. The streets of every
Dalmatian town on the sea-board or islands are
filled with the same graceful semi-oriental ogee
windows and the same lovely balconies that meet
the eye at every turn in the mistress city, the
churches are fitted with rich tabernacle work that
^ It should Le observed that the earliest huildiugs in Dalmatia
in which the Gothic style was thoroughly developed are the cou-
vents of the meudicaut orders.
22 2 Dalmatian Architecture. [Ch .11.
recalls the choir of the great church of the Frari,
and it does not need the ever-present symbol of the
Evangelist to remind us that we are treading the
soil of an ancient Venetian province. It is, how-
ever, chiefly in private buildings that Gothic archi-
tecture prevailed in Dalmatia ; besides the earlier
part of the duomo of Sebenico (1430) there are but
few churches in that style, and the most important
public building is the palace of the Rectors of the
Republic of Ragusa, which was begun in 1435 by a
Neapolitan and not a Venetian architect. The
sculpture in this palace is of a very high order, and
will be fully described and illustrated in its j)roper
place.
Gothic architecture, however, had but a short
reign in Dalmatia ; it was adopted very late, and
abandoned very early for the Renaissance, a style
for which the Dalmatians showed a natural and
almost precocious liking. Its introduction is due
to Giorgio Orsini, or Giorgio Dalmatico as his ad-
miring countrymen like to style him, the scion of
a Zaratine family which claimed descent from the
princely Roman house, and an architect of original
genius who may fairly be styled the Brunelleschi of
Dalmatia.
In 1 44 1 he was entrusted with the completion
of the duomo of Sebenico, which had been begun by
another architect in a style of very good Italian
Gothic. Giorgio at once threw over the plans of
his predecessor, and built the eastern part of the
church in a picturesque variety of the early style
Ch. II.] Dalmatian Architecture. 223
of the Renaissance, which he treated with great
originality. Thorns and brambles, as he might
have said, of the old Gothic art clung to him, and
among his classic columns and in his windows and
vaults is to be found tracery-work that belongs
rather to the style he had abandoned than that
he adopted. But in spite of these incongruities
Giorgio has produced a masterly design, and no
one who has seen his church will easily forget it.
His greatest triumph was achieved by the roofs,
which consist of waggon vaults of stone, visible
outside as well as inside ; an idea perhaps sug-
gested by the semicu'cular vault of the little temple
at Spalato which was in the same way visible ex-
ternally, but which when carried out as it is at
Sebenico, on so vast a scale, at so great a height,
and with such comparatively slender materials, may
fairly be considered original, and cannot fail to
excite surprise and admiration^.
The handiwork of Giorgio will be met with else-
where in Dalmatia, and notably at Ragusa, where
in 1 464 he repaired the front of the Rector's palace,
placing the round arches of the present arcade with
their festoons of leaves and ribbons upon the old
colonnade of Onofrio de la Cava. He was highly
honoured by his fellow-citizens and entrusted by
them with an embassy to Rome, and in the old
quarter of Sebenico may still be seen the doorway
^ I assume here that the idea of roofing the cliurcli in this Avay
is to be attributed to Giorgio, although he did not live to see the
vaulting completed ; vid. infra, Sebenico, chapter ix.
224 Dalmatiati Architecture. [Ch. ii.
of the house he built for himself, with the bear of
Orsini on the lintel, and the mallet and chisel of his
sculjDtor's craft on the door-posts surrounded by-
clusters of flowers.
Contemporary with Giorgio was another Dalma-
tian architect, whose fame attracted the attention
of one of the leading princes of Italy. In 1468
Federigo da Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino, set about
building that palace in his capital which is one of
the gems of Renaissance architecture; and having
searched Italy, and in particular Tuscany ' the
source of architects,' for an artist worthy of the
occasion, he finally selected Messer Lutiano of Lau-
rana or Vrana, in the territory of Zara, to whom
the work was entrusted and by whom the oldest
remaining part of the palace was designed and
erected. I am not cognizant of any work by Lu-
ciano di Laurana in his native country. He settled
at Urbino and died at Pesaro about 1 48 1 \
When we observe that Giorgio's 'Renaissance'
work at Sebenico in 1441 preceded that of Leo Bat-
tista Alberti at Rimini by nine years, and was contem-
porary with the Gothic Porta della Carta at Venice,
we shall be struck with the willing reception of the
new art in Dalmatia, and with the prominent posi-
tion to which Giorgio is entitled as a leader of the
new movement. The early Renaissance work of
Pietro Lombardo on the Chiesa dei Mu^acoli at
Venice is forty years later, and the Cancelleria at
Rome, which marks the turning-point of the Re-
' Virl. infra, uuder descrijation of Vrana, chapter viii.
Ch. II. ] Dabnatian Architecture. 225
naissance from its semi-Gothic to its pm^ely classic
phase, was not built till sixty years afterwards in
1 500. In France the Renaissance did not begin to
affect the current Gothic art till about 1508, nor
in England till about 1520, while the castle of
Heidelberg, in the Kenaissance style of Germany,
was not built till 1556.
Once established in Dalmatia the new style soon
prevailed over the older Gothic art for all buildings
of importance, though it would seem that private
houses were still built in Venetian Gothic. An
Albanian architect, Andrea Alecxi of Durazzo, was
employed at Trail Spalato and Arbe, and the
names of a few Italian architects from Venice or
Florence, and occasionally of a German, have come
down to us. It is singular, however, that though
the Dalmatians adopted the style of the Benaissance
almost as soon as it appeared, they did not advance
it like the Italians to pure Palladianism. Of the
cold severe formal architecture of that school
Dalmatia hardly contains an example ; the pic-
turesque freedom of Gothic which continued to
inspire the earlier phases of Renaissance art, and
which give it its life and charm, never forsook the
style in Dalmatia till the seventeenth century was
well advanced, when the art suddenly sank into the
slough of the ' Barocco,' in which it was fatally en-
gulphed.
The following chronological list of the principal
buildings in Dalmatia of which I have been able to
ascertain the dates, or to conjecture them with
VOL. I. Q
226
Dalmatian A rchitecHre.
[Ch. it.
anything like certainty, will I hope be of use to
the student of the architecture of the country. I
have added a few Istrian buildings to complete the
regular sequence of examples.
A.D.
284-305-
Fourth or
fifth century.
EOMAN PEEIOD.
Spalato. Palace of Diocletian.
Salona. Basilica and Bap-
tistery. Destroyed 639.
Irregular classic. Old columns,
&c. used up secondhand.
Classic passing into Byzantine.
BYZANTINE PERIOD, 535-1102.
535-543-
546.
571-586.
Paren?o. Duomo.
Pola. S. Maria di Canneto
consecrated (now destroyed) .
Grado. Duomo of patriarch
Elias.
Cattaro. Original duomo of
Andreasci.
c. do.
c. do.
Cattaro. La Collegiata (since
rebuilt).
Zara. S. Donate.
857-
Ninth to
eleventh
century.
Pola. Duomo of Handegis
(since rebuilt).
Zara. S. Pietro vecchio.
Nona. S. Nicolb.
n
do. S. Croce.
S. Lorenzo in Pasenatico,
duomo.
Trieste. Duomo (southern part
perhaps older).
Zara. S. Lorenzo.
»
do. Baptistery.
do. S. Orsola.
Spalato. S. Trinity.
Pure Byzantine as at Ravenna,
do. do. do.
do. do. do.
but some fi-agments of old
buildings used secondhand.
Only fragments remain. Inter-
lacing knots and barbarous
animals.
Original plan probably re-
tained. Byzantine.
Grand but rude domed church
■with old fragments em-
ployed.
Fragments remain of Byzan-
tine design.
Barbarous. Made up of frag-
ments of older buildings.
Plain and rude. In plan By-
zantine. Small cruciform
church with cupola.
do. do. do.
do. Details original.^
Basilican in plan.
do. do. do.
do. A few original
details.
Byzantine. Cupola surrounded
by apses.
do. do. do.
do. do. do.
^ By this I mean that the sculpture was designed and worked
originally for the building, not used up secondhand from older
buildinjTS.
ch. ir.]
Dalmatian Architecture.
227
A.D.
Ninth to
eleventh
century.
1026-31.
Zara. Apse and crypt of
Duomo. (Rest rebuilt,)
Ragusa. S. Stefano.
do. S. Giacomo in Peline.
Trati. S. Barbara.
Zara. S. Domenica.
Arbe. Baldacchino in duomo.
Muggia vecchia,
Arbe. S. Giovanni Battista.
Aquileia. Poppo's rebuilding.
Plain rude work. (Date un-
certain.)
do. Scale very small,
do. do. do.
Byzantine. More original in
details, showing an advance
in art.
do. do. do.
Byzantine. Knotwork and
animal grotesques approach-
ing Romanesque.
Building rude. Knotwork, &c.
in screens approaching Ro-
manesque.
Basilican nave, but Roman-
esque apse and ambulatory,
showing transition.
Byzantine passing into Ro-
manesque. Capitals finely
executed.
VENETIAN AND HUNGARIAN PEEIOD, 1 102-1409
1 105
and Sala Capitolart
Tomb of
do. do.
Vekenega.
1 1 23-1 166. Cattaro. Duomo rebuilt
1 1 75. Zara. Apse and south wall of
S. Grisogono.
1 1 86-90. Veglia. Duomo.
c. 1 200. Arbe. Great campanile.
1 2 1 3. Trail. South doorway finished
and probably nave of Cathe-
dral generally.
1 214. Spalato. West doors (wooden)
of Duomo by Guvina. Stalls
of same date and probably
by the same hand. Also
the marble pulpit.
1340. Trail. West portal finished
by Radovan.
c. 1250? Zara. Nave of Duomo (con-
secrated 1285).
1251. Parenzo. Canonica.
1377. do. Baldacchino in du-
omo.
1387. Arbe. Duomo mostly rebuilt.
Q 2
Lombard or German Roma-
nesque, well designed and
executed.
do. do.
Clustered or articulated piers
alternating with columns.
Romanesque, rude.
Lombard Romanesque, highly
finished.
Byzantine passing into Roma-
nesque.
Romanesque, excellent work-
manship.
do. do.
Transitional or refined Roma-
nesque, highly finished.
Transitional Romanesque, ex-
quisitely finished.
Ruder than the above. Old
capitals occasionally used up.
Piers and columns alter-
nately.
Lombard Romanesque.
Arches bluntly pointed. Capi-
tals Byzantine.
Byzantine in character. Plain.
228
Dalmatian Architecture.
[Ch. II.
A.D.
c. 1300-23.
1306.
c. 1312(1)
c. 1317-
1324.
1330-1385-
1332-
c. 1348.
I360-I4I6.
1365-
1380.
1394-95-
c. 1407.
Spalato. Two lower stages of
campanile.
Ragusa. Dominican church,
do. Sponza, two lower
storeys of court,
do. Franciscan cloister
by Mycha di Antivari.
Zara west front (upper central
part is still later).
Trieste. Central nave of
duomo.
Zara. Baldacchino in duomo.
Ragusa. Dominican cloister
and convent.
Spalato. Upper part of campa-
nile by Nicolb Tverdoj.
Aquileia. Duomo remodelled
by patriarch Marquard
after earthquake.
Zara. Silver ark of S. Simeone.
By Francesco di Milano.
Zara. Stalls in S. Francesco.
By Giov. di Borg. S. Sepolcro.
Zara. Central upper parts of
west fronts of duomo and
S. Grisosrono.
Romanesque.
Italian Gothic.
Plain early pointed work.
Ti-ansitional Romanesque.
Romanesque.
Italian Gothic.
Pointed arches, but capitals
Romanesque.
Romanesque mixed with Ita-
lian Gothic. Details later
in character than general
design.
Romanesque like the lower
part.
Pointed arches of Italian
Gothic. Venetian foliage.
Poppo's capitals retained.
Italian Gothic.
Venetian Gothic.
Romanesque, but attenuated
and meagre.
1420-50.
1422.
1427.
1430.
1435-
1437-
1438-65.
1441.
VENETIAN PERIOD, 1 409-1 797.
Zara. Choir stalls in duomo.
To the same style and period
belong the stalls at Cherso
Lesina, Parenzo, Mezzo, S.
Maria in Zara, Trail, and
Arbe. The last-named is
dated I445.
Trati. Campanile above portico
byMatteoandStefano. (Top
part later.)
Spalato. Altar of S. Doimo
by Bonino of Milan.
Sebenico. Earlier part of nave
with the arcades, aisle
vaults, and two principal
doors by Antonio di Paolo.
Ragusa. Palazzo Rettorale re-
built by Onofrio de la Cava.
A great deal remains.
Ragusa. Public fountains by
Onofrio de la Cava.
Curzola. Campanile.
Sebenico. Eastern part, upper
vaults, and cupola begun by
Giorgio Orsini.
Venetian Gothic, resembling
that of the woodwork in the
Frari at Venice.
Good Italian Gothic, well-
moulded and elaborated.
Italian Gothic of excellent
workmanship.
Fine Italian Gothic. Giottesque
in character.
Fine Italian Gothic. Sculp-
ture of a very high order.
Round arched below. Elabo-
rate Gothic belvedere above.
Renaissance of an early type,
but mixed with Gothic
details.
Ch. II.]
Dalmatian A rchitecture.
229
A. D.
1447-
1448.
Mr3.
1457-
1460.
1464.
1465-98.
1467.
1468.
H77-
1490.
1520-36.
1543-
c. 1540-50.
1571-4-
1600.
1642-59.
1642-59
1667.
1671-1713.
1699-1715.
1715-
Trail. Sacristy.
Spalato duomo. Altar of S.
Anastasio by Giorgio Orsini.
Sebenico. Sacristy by Giorgio
Orsini.
Ragusa. Chiesa delle DanJie.
Zara. Silver pastoral staff
of archbishop Valeresso.
Ragusa. New arches to front
of Rector's palace by Mi-
chelozzo and Giorgio Orsini.
Ossero. New duomo (? by
Giorg. Orsini).
Trail. Baptistery by Andrea
Alecxi of Durazzo.
Trail. Chapel of S. Giovanni
Ursini by Andrea Alecxi.
Curzola. Cloister of Badia.
Arbe. Duomo, west door.
Ragusa. San Salvatore.
Zara. Porta di Terra firma by
Sammichieli.
Lesina. Loggia by Sammi-
chieli.
Lesina. Three campanili and
restoration of churches.
Zara. Facade (unfinished) of
S. Rocco.
Savina. Church plate in Greek
convent, brought from Bos-
nia.
Ragusa. Chiesa del Rosario.
Cattaro. Western towers.
Ragusa. New duomo.
do. Chiesa dei Gesuiti.
do. S. Biagio.
Italian Gothic.
Italian Gothic, but Giorgio
was directed to make the
altar like that of S. Doimo,
v. sup. 1427.
Renaissance of an early type.
Italian Gothic,
do. do.
Renaissance of an early type.
Renaissance of an early type.
Renaissance. Early in cha-
racter with ^pointed barrel
vault.
Renaissance. With round
vault, rich in figure sculp-
ture.
Venetian Gothic, passing into
Renaissance.
Renaissance.
do., but mixed with Gothic
features.
Classic renaissance fully de-
veloped.
do. do. but treated with
freedom.
Renaissance, but mixed with
some Gothic features.
Classic fully developed.
Byzantine ; resembling but for
a few suspicious details the
work of the sixth or seventh
century.
Barocco.
do.
do.
do.
do.
CHAPTER III.
Zara.
Description of the city. History. Eoman remains.
Zara is naturally the place where the traveller
will first touch Dalmatian soil, and first be intro-
duced to the people, the scenery, and the arts of
South-Eastern Europe. Though it may be reached
either from Ancona or Fiume the more usual route
is by way of Trieste and Pola, and the exigencies of
the time-table generally bring the steamer into port
early in the morning, so that the traveller begins his
new experiences just as the day is breaking and the
sleeping city awaking to fresh life. And no lack of
new experiences will be felt by those who have
never before crossed the Adriatic and trodden the
border lands of European civilization. It excites a
thrill of interest to find oneself for the first time
within reach of the Turk, at whose dread coming
four centuries ago Christendom trembled, kingdoms
fell, and the last fragment of the Roman Empire
crumbled into ruin. Though driven out of Dal-
matia he has left his mark on many a ruined castle
and half-deserted town ; and as the steamer ploughs
Ch. III.] Zara. 231
her way in the morning stilhiess along the Canale
di Zara, and the dawn brightens over the jagged
crests of the Velebic mountains, the thought rises
that behind that rugged barrier is the land where
the Turk still bears rule in name, and where it was
but yesterday that the despised Christian obtained
equal rights with his Moslem conqueror.
The Turk it is true will not often be met with in
Dalmatia now-a-days, but a stranger will find
enough in the Christian population to surprise and
perplex him. The first sounds of the Illyric tongue,
the first glimpse of the gorgeous costume of those
who speak it, the appearance of the Eastern form of
Christianity on an equality with the Latin branch,
and in southern Dalmatia almost on a superior
footing, tell him of a very different land from the
well-known countries of western Europe. He will
wonder at the extremes of civilization he encounters,
ranging from high culture to something lower
than semi-barbarism ; and, above all, he will be per-
plexed by the existence, unaccountable to those who
have not studied Dalmatian history, of the two
elements in the population, — Latin and Slavonic, —
which for twelve centuries have lived on aide by
side without losing their difierence, and which are
now forced more sharply asunder than ever by the
policy of the present rulers of the country.
It was with the pleasant sensation of having
realized a day-dream of many years that I woke one
morning to find myself steaming down the Canale di
Zara, a channel perhaps three miles wide, with the
232 Zara. [Ch. ill.
low irregular coast of the mainland backed up in the
distance by the Velebic mountains on the left hand,
and the mountainous island of Ugliano on the right.
Straight before us lay Zara, where we were to make
our first acquaintance with a Dalmatian town, and
our curiosity was I confess mixed with some anxiety
as to the sort of accommodation we should find ; for
there are no Dalmatian guide-books, and the reports
that had vaguely reached us of Dalmatian inns were
not encouraging. Zara makes little show from a
distance, and, before we well knew we were there,
we were entering the historic harbour where the
French and Venetians landed after the galleys of St.
Mark had burst the chain that closed the entrance.
We saw nothing indeed of the mighty walls whose
strength made the ci'usaders wonder at their own
success, for they were long ago removed to make
way for the more modern fortifications of the Vene-
tian engineer Sammichieli, and these in their turn
have on the sea front of the town been demolished
to form the handsome promenade of the Riva nuova,
much to the advantage of the city in point of
airiness. Toward the harbour however the bastions
and curtains of Sammichieli remain standing, with a
wide quay, at which the steamers are able to lie
close to the shore in deep water.
We entered the town by the Porta San Grisogono,
above which the Lion of St. Mark still keejDS guard,
though the town is his to guard no longer. The
streets along which we followed our porters were
narrow and smoothly flagged for foot traffic like
Oh. III.] Zara.
■OJ
those at Venice, and might very well have been on
the island of the Rialto ; a church we passed was in
the familiar Romanesque style of Italy ; and many a
window met the eye with the well-known ogee arch
and billet moulding of Venetian architecture. At
first sight the town itself is thoroughly Italian, and
one is inclined to be disappointed to find so little
novelty in it ; but the crowds that throng the busy
little streets are strange enough to Western eyes
and soon bring home the fact that the Adriatic lies
between Zara and the shores of Italy. The native
Zaratini to be sure are Italian in language, garb, and
habits, but the country people of whom the town
was full when we fu^st saw it, just at vintage-time,
show jDlainly in aU three particulars that they belong
to a different race, which has not yet lost the pictu-
resqueness of the Middle Ages in the humdrum of
the nineteenth century. The splendour of then* em-
broidered garments, and the wealth of silver orna-
ments and coins displayed on their persons, may
perhaps smack slightly of semi-barbarism, but they
are not the less interesting on that account to those
who like to see civilization in the making ; and
though the native Dalmatians of the Latin stock
object to these gay costumes being considered
national, a foreigner may enjoy then- picturesqueness,
in which point it must be admitted the advantage is
all on the side of the Croatians. The men wear
trousers of blue cloth gaily worked at the pockets,
tight to the leg and often fastened up the back of
the calf by a row of silver hooks and eyes ; and they
2 34 Zava. [Ch. iii.
are shod with the opanka, a kmd of sandal well
adapted to the sharp rocks they have to encounter,
made of a sole of thick leather turned up and
stitched to form a toe, and laced over the instep
with knotted and twisted thongs of leather. In the
markets and bazaars the peasants may be seen bar-
gaining for the sole leathers, which are cut for them
then and there from the hide and sold by weight ^
Above the opanka they wear a kind of spat of gay
embroidery reaching a little above the ankle. The
waistcoat is buttoned across on one side, and has a
wide border of braid or needle-work, and the jacket
has stripes of bright colour on the lappets, and an
abundance of knots and tassels of coloured wools.
The true Morlacco fashion is to have the hair plaited
behind into a pigtail, and to wear the shirt outside
the trousers, but this is less commonly to be seen
in the towns now than formerly 2. On gala days
the jacket of the true Morlacco is still more splendid,
made of scarlet or blue cloth richly worked with
birds and flowers in coloured threads at the seams
and shoulders, in the same place as the uniform of
our hussars or horse-artillerymen, which is but a
■^ Wheler gives a drawing of a Moi-lacco or Dalmatian peasant
from which it seems that the costume has changed a good deal
since 1675. But the opanka was the same then as now; '^for
slwes they have only a jnece of Leather 01- sometimes of a dried
Skin fitted to, and by thongs, or strings, going crossways over the
back of the feet, are tyed fast to their soles' Wheler's Journey
into Greece, p. 9.
^ The ' gamins ' of Zara amuse themselves by shouting ' izvadi
kosulya,' ' out with your shirt,' after those gentlemen who are
known to be partisans of the Croat movement.
Ch; III.] Zara. 235
distant and vulgarized copy of the national garb of
the Slav, A jaunty and becoming little scarlet cap
with a bluntly pointed crown and a tuft of black
fringe over one ear completes the costume. Both
jacket and waistcoat are thickly hung with silver
ornaments ; zwantzigers of Maria Theresa and her
husband dangling at the end of a link, buttons of
filagree work or plain metal ranging from the size of
a nut to that of a small hen's e^^, and smaller studs
sewn thickly together and several rows deep. The
women wear a smock of homespun linen fastened at
the throat with a fila2:ree button, and embroidered
in front and at the shoulders and wTists ; a waistcoat
of blue cloth open in front ; a short petticoat of the
same ; and an apron worked in coloured wools so
solidly as to be as stiff as a piece of carpet ; and they
have opankas and embroidered spats like the men,
the latter often continued as leggings half way to
the knee, and having the effect of trousers. The un-
married girls wear a scarlet cap like that of the men,
but covered with embroidery and spangles, and on
festivals hung round with a fringe of pendent coins.
Married women change this for a large white hand-
kerchief of homespun linen beautifully worked at
the corners and edges, which covers the head, is
tied under the chin, and hangs over the back and
shoulders. The women are not behind the men in
the profusion of their silver ornaments, and round
their waists they often wear several coils of a leather
band thickly studded with bright metal knobs, and
sometimes with coarse stones set in brass. They
236 Zara, [Ch. m.
wear large golden or silver gilt earrings, and on their
fingers large rings of filagree, and on grand occasions
their heads are thickly set with pretty filagree-
headed pins. They would rather go without bread
than part with then- jewelry, and consequently it
is not often that any of it comes into the market.
Those among them who are too poor to afibrd silver
ornaments have imitations of them in tin and brass,
and some are reduced to deck themselves with
cowrie-shells instead of studs and buttons, which
they sew thickly over their ragged garments for
want of something finer. Among the crowd were
many figures so ragged, uixkempt, and filthy, as to
seem more than half-way to savagery.
Zara occupies a level peninsula, slightly raised
above the sea, lying parallel to the mainland, and
embracing a natural harbour of deep water with its
entrance towards the north-west. Sites of this kind,
convenient for maritime pursuits and easily secured
against attacks from the landward side, abound on
the coasts of Istria and Dalmatia, and were eagerly
seized upon by the early colonists. Of all the Dal-
matian ports however none were found to combine
so many advantages as that of Zara, and none were
so jealously guarded by the Venetians or thought so
necessary to the security of their marine. Cattaro,
in the innermost recesses of her winding ' bocche,'
was a secure haven for her friends, and difiicult of
attack by her enemies, but she was inconvenient of
access ; the harbour of Ragusa was small, and lay
within the city walls ; that of Spalato was not safe
Ch. III.] Zara. 237
during the storms of winter ; that of Trail, though
both safe and spacious, would be untenable if an
enemy occupied the island that enclosed it ; the
magnificent haven of Sebenico was inadequately
defended by fortifications ; but that of Zara, lying
between the mainland and the long peninsula of the
city, was capacious, though the mouth was not too
large to be closed by a chain, and was nearer to
Venice than the rest, more roomy than most of
them, and more easily defended ^. A possession so
valuable has always been strongly fortified. The
Crusaders of 1202 speak with astonishment of the
prodigious walls and towers that they were asked to
attack-; and Lucio, who saw fragments of these de-
fences, describes them as resembling the Roman
walls of Spalato, and supposes that Zara was at the
time of the siege still enclosed by the curtains and
bastions of Roman Jadera, which were destroyed by
the Crusaders after their capture of the city ^. Of
the mediaeval fortifications which succeeded to these
one noble tower remains, the torre ' Bovo d' Antona '
near the public gardens, a picturesque pentagon with
a salient angle towards what was once the open
country but is now enclosed witliin the later lines.
^ Their relative advantages are thus summarised b)- Lucio, de
Regn. V. i. p. 240.
"^ ' Si virent la cit6 fermee de haus murs et de grans tours, et
pour noient deraandissies plus bele cit6 ne plus fort : et quant .li
pelerin la virent si s'en esmaierent moult et distrent li uns a I'autre
" Comment porroit estre tele cite prise, se nostre Sires meisme ne
le faisoiti'" Villebardouiu, ch. xliv.
' De Regno, iv. p. 155.
238 Zara. [Ch. hi.
The existing fortifications were designed by Sammi-
chieli, and were constructed between 1543 and 1570
when Zara was considered to be in danger from the
Turks. They consist of earthworks faced with
masonry, and were protected by a ditch cut across
the peninsula in 1409 when the Venetians for the
last time recovered the city ^ One gate alone com-
municated with the terra-firma, and this gave Sam-
michieli an opportunity of showing himself an archi-
tect as well as an engineer. It is a grand piece of
simple architecture, with a spacious central arch
and two lateral doorways of rusticated Doric ; but
its effect has been seriously injured by the filling up
of the ditch which formerly washed the walls. The
lower part, which is now hidden, was of fine masonry
bevelled and raised in diamonds, forming a solid
basement to the upper part, which now seems
deficient in this respect. I am told by those who
remember the gate in its original state that at least
one third of its height is concealed. It used to be
reached by a long bridge of wooden beams on stone
piers which approached it obliquely, and not like
the present road directly ; and it is said the archi-
tectural effect has suffered by this change of ap-
proach. Over the arch is the Lion of St. Mark, and
an inscription records the erection of the gateway in
1543'.
^ ' Isthmum, quamvis e saxo, perfodere, marique immisso Civi-
tatem in Insulam redigere decreverunt.' Lucio, 1. v. c. v. p. 263.
^ Michele San Michele was born at Verona in 1484, and was
much employed by the Venetians and their General the duke of
Ch. hi.] Zara. 239
By these fortifications Zara remained enclosed
till a few years ago, when their inutility under
the altered conditions of modern warfare became
evident ; those towards the sea have now been
entirely removed, and those toward the poi*t laid
out as a public garden, which affords one of the
most agreeable lounges in Dalmatia, The town
which was formerly very close and airless, a network
of narrow streets hemmed in on all sides by earth-
works that overtopped most of the private buildings,
has benefited very greatly by the change.
Two main thoroughfares intersect the town, the
Calle laro:a, leading- from the Porta di Terra firma
to the Piazza dell' Erbe, and the Corso parallel
to it, leading from the Piazza dei Signori to the
duomo. As in all ancient municipalities the piazza
is the heart of the city and the centre of its life.
Here are the public clock tower, the Communal
palace, not now architecturally remarkable, and
the loggia where the judges used to sit, and where
the public acts were ratified. The latter is a
dignified building of classical architecture, once
open on two sides with a series of lofty arches,
Urbino as a military engineer. After repairing and renewing
their forts on the Italian side, he was sent to do the same witli
those in Dalmatia Cyprus and Candia, and being unable to do all
himself he left the execution of his plans to his nephew Giov.
Girolamo, who, according to Vasari, carried out the work at Zara.
The nephew died in Cyprus in 1558 or 1559, perhaps by poison,
and was buried at Famagosta, and the uncle died in 1559 of grief
at the extinction of his family, according to Vasari. Yita di San
Micheli.
240 Zara. [Ch. hi.
but now enclosed with glazed sashes and turned
mto a town library, endowed by the munificence
of a citizen of Zara, and named after him the
Bibblioteca Paravia\ In the interior may still be
seen the stone bench and table of the Venetian
judges with the Lion of St. Mark on the wall
above. In this piazza is the principal caffe, with
two rows of tables in front under an awning,
between which flows the full tide of the life of
Zara. Morlacco peasants with hand trucks and
wine skins and sometimes even carts, Austrian
officers in full uniform, contadini gay with em-
broidery and silver ornaments, civilians of Zara,
ladies and gentlemen, in ordinary European garb,
rural police in scarlet jackets like the peasants,
but laden to an incredible extent with buttons
and even balls of massive silver, priests of the
Latin Church in black, Franciscan friars in brown,
Greek priests with wide blue sashes round their
cassocks, shovel hats, and flowing beards, all pass
in a never-ending procession through the two lines
of guests who sit breakfasting or drinking coffee
in front of the Cafie agli Specchi, and form a
never-failing source of interest and amusement to
the traveller who takes his place among them.
The military bands play at night in the piazza,
which is then crowded with the townsfolk, while
^ I must express my sense of the obligations I am under to the
authorities of the Bibblioteca Paravia for the liberal use allowed me
of their collection, which contains many books rarely to be found
beyond the limits of Dalmatia.
Ch. III.] Zara. 241
perhaps the moon lights up one-half of the square
and falls brilliantly on the Torre dell' Orologio, and
one may sit and listen and be reminded of Florian
and the arcades of the Procuratie of St. Mark.
A short way eastward from the Piazza is
the Campo di San Simeone with a single Roman
column standing in the open space, and beyond
that are the public gardens, and the cinque pozzi
which supply the city with water. They were
constructed by Sammichieli, and are supplied \vith
water from sources outside the city which passes
through an elaborate system of filtering beds before
reaching the wells from which it is drawn \ Branches
are led from this supply to other parts of the town,
but for the most part I believe the inhabitants
depend on the water that runs from their own roofs.
The sky is the only source from which fresh water
is obtained in the smaller towns of Dalmatia, and
especially on the islands, where there are neither
springs nor streams ; and as even in this dry
country the supply rarely fails, one may believe
what has been said of the sufficiency of the water
from our o^mi roofs in England for all our domestic
wants. In the courtyards of the houses and in
the cloisters of the convents the whole area is
excavated to form an immense cistern ; a wall is
built round it, and the bottom and sides are pud-
dled with clay ; a cylinder of dry masomy or
' Sammicliieli's plans have been engraved, and the contrivance
they show of filtering beds and subterranean channels is curious.
A copy is in the possession of an architect living at Zara.
VOL. T. R
242 Zara. [Ch. hi.
brickwork is raised in the middle as high as the
ground level ; and the area of the cistern round
the cylinder and within the puddled walls is filled
with sand which is wetted repeatedly till it has
sunk to the utmost. The yard is then paved over,
and holes are left in the paving to allow the water
from the surrounding roofs to soak into the sand,
through which it finds its way, filtered from all
impurities, into the central cylinder, which is in
fact the well from which it is drawn. On the
top of this well is set the well-known Venetian
^ ^ozzo ' of marble or Istrian stone, which adorns
the centre of every campo and the cortile of every
house in Dalmatia as it does in Venice, where the
same mode of constructing cisterns and filtering
the rain water has prevailed for centuries \ It
is only necessary to change the sand periodically
in order to ensure a supply of water which is
probably safer and purer than any derived from
sj)rings or rivers, although the latter are not ex-
posed to contamination as they are with us, for
in Dalmatia so far as I have observed there are
no house drains.
Following the Corso westward we arrived at the
Duomo, a building which in point of design and
execution need not fear comparison with the
Lombard churches of Italy which it resembles,
and which as the first great church we saw in
Dalmatia raised our expectations of the architecture
^ Wheler describes the construction of cisterns on this phin at
Venice in his time. Journey into Greece, p. 13.
Ch. III.] Zara. 243
of the province. Near it is the other great square,
the Piazza dell' Erbe or vegetable market, the
best place in Zara to see the Croatians and Mor-
lacchi in their picturesque costume. Here there
is another isolated Roman column with a tablet
and cross of Byzantine workmanship attached to
the front of it, beside which dangle some chains
with hinged rings to clip the neck hands or feet
of culprits condemned to the ' herlina ' or pillory,
who sat here in the fetters of the Law with the
Gospel cross over their heads. These grim in-
struments have swung in the wind so long that
the arcs they describe at the end of their chains
are graven deeply in the marble of the column.
From the Piazza dell' Erbe the outer or seaward
shore of the peninsula is now reached directly,
all the fortifications having been removed on this
side. In their place vast many storied-buildings
are rapidly rising, such as are to be seen in the
new quarters of any Italian town. A really magni-
ficent promenade with rows of acacias is being
formed along this shore, which when finished will
be a very agreeable addition to the resources of
the place. The channel of the sea which it borders
is here perhaps three or four miles wide, and the
opposite shore is formed by the long narrow island
of Ugliano, which rises into a chain of miniature
mountains, one of which is cro\\aied by the ruins
of the castle of S. Michele, which played an import-
ant part in the history of Zara.
The history of Zara is in fact the history of
R 2
244 Zara : History. [Ch. hi.
Dalmatia, for Zara was throughout the middle
ages the most important city of the province, and
the principal object of dispute between the Venetians
and the Hungarians. It is, therefore, unnecessary
to do more than recapitulate briefly the principal
events and revolutions of which Zara was the scene,
referring for details to the general history of the
country already given.
Jadera, already in alliance with Rome, received
a Koman colony in the year 78 B.C. Its prosperity
under the EmjDire may be conjectured from the
remains of splendid buildings that are still to be
seen there, but it was probably eclipsed by the
older capital Salona. It may be safely conjectured
that Jadera did not escape the Avars, but perished
like the other cities of the coast ; and the conjecture
is supported by the story of Archidiaconus that
some refugees from Salona found their way to the
harbour of an ancient but ruined town which they
inhabited and named ladria after their own river
lader, whose delicious waters bathed the walls of
their deserted Salona\
Zara, however, recovered from her ruin, and
received again the Latin population that had fled
to the islands, and in 752, when the Lombards
took Ravenna, the Byzantine fleet was removed
^ Thomas Aixhid. c. ix. I must not omit an equally original
derivation of the name of Zara by Constantine Porphyrogenitus.
OTi TO Kciarpov tcov Ai.a8u>pa>v Kokflrai tt) 'Pcofiaicnv 8ia\eKTco tafi epar, onep
fppTjvfveTcu aTrdpTi Tjtov' BrjXovoTi ore fj PapT] eKTiaOr], TrpofKTKrpePOV rjv
TO ToiovTov KacTTpou' eoTi 8e TO KacTTpov peya. rj 5e Koivf) avurjdeia KoXe'i
avTo Aia8o>pa. De adm. Imp. c. 29.
1
Ch. III.] Zara: History. 245
to Zara, which became the capital of the province
and seat of the Byzantine duke. Her submission
to Pietro Orseolo II in 998 did not interfere with
the nominal sovereignty of the Empire, which
was only broken down by the Hungarian conquest
of 1 105.
The Venetians recovered Zara in 1 1 1 6, and from
that time forward the retention of that city was
the mainspring of their policy in Dalmatian Four
times the Zaratini rebelled ; the first revolt was
in 1 1 78, when they threw themselves on the pro-
tection of the Hungarians, and were not reconquered
till 1202; they rebelled a second time in 1242,
but w^ere recovered with little bloodshed after a
few months ; in 1 3 1 1 they rebelled a third time,
but were forced to submit in 1 3 1 3 ; and their
fourth revolt, in 1345, was crushed in 1346, in spite
of the assistance of Lewis of Hungary. In 1357,
how^ever, the Hungarians were treacherously ad-
mitted within the w^alls by the abbot of S. Michele,
and in the following year the peace was signed
at Zara by which Venice ceded to Hungary all
her rights in Dalmatia. In 1403 Ladislaus of
Naples was croAvned at Zara king of Hungary with
all its dependencies, and on the failure of his
attempt in 1409 he sold Zara with Pago Novigrad
and Vrana to the Venetians, in whose possession
it remained till the downfall of the Republic in
1 797. Thus during the eight centuries that followed
the expedition of Pietro Orseolo Zara was only
' Vid. sup. History, cli.ipt. i. pp. 51-72.
246 Zara: Roman remains. [Ch. ill.
eighty years in all out of the possession of the
Venetians.
Of Roman architecture there are abundant traces
at Zara, though for the most part they consist of
fragments. There are the two antique columns
in the piazze, of which the most important is that
in the Piazza dell' Erbe, which according to one
theory is actually standing where the Komans
placed it, though Professor Hauser believes it to
be an antique column set up by the Venetians
where we now see it, to carry the Lion of St. Mark,
whose image adorns the top^. It is a fine Corin-
thian column, more than four feet in diameter and
thirty-four in height, not fluted, still retaining its
defaced capital, and it evidently belonged to the
peristyle of a temple of considerable grandeur and
magnificence. Wheler, who visited Zara in 1675,
speaks of a second column standing with this one^,
which confirms the theory of its being in its original
place.
The column in the Piazza di S. Simeone, or
' delta colonna,' at the opposite end of the town,
is a fluted Corinthian column less perfect than the
other ; it has been sawn into lengths, and the lower
part is missing, so that the flutings run out on
the modern base without being properly stopped.
^ Vid. Hauser e Bulic, II tempio di S. Doiiato in Zara, pp. 6, 16.
Sp. Artale. Zara, 1884.
^ ' Near the Greek church dedicated to Saint Helie are two
Corinthian Pillars, whose first Chapters and Bases are of very good
work.' Wheler, p. 1 1 .
Ch. III.] Zara: Rojiian 7'cmain<;. 247
This also no doubt once carried the Venetian
lion.
Close by this column I was fortunate enough,
in 1884, to see exposed the base of a Roman
building which seemed to have been a triumphal
arch of considerable grandeur. The pedestal, or
rather basement, of one side of the arch remained,
and on it were lying in disorder various fragments
of the architraves and other members of the upper
part. The excavations had not been carried down
to the base, but the original level of the ground on
which the arch stood could not have been less than
eight or nine feet below the present level of the
piazza. This interesting fragment of Roman magni-
ficence was only exposed for a short time, and on
my return a few weeks afterwards I found it had
been covered up again.
Another piece of Roman antiquity is the gateway,
or rather fragment of a gateway, now forming the
inner face of the Porta S. Grisogono, though evi-
dently brought there from elsewhere. It consists of
an archway flanked by Corinthian columns, whose
lower half is imperfect, which carry a horizontal
entablature. The frieze bears this inscription : —
MELIA ANNIANA IN MEMOR. Q. LAEPICI. Q. F.
SERG. BASSI MARITI SVI EMPORIVM STERNI ET ARCVM
FIERI ET STATVAS SVPERPONI TEST. IVSS EX IIS
DCDXX. P. R.^
^ Prof. Bulic interprets the last words ex sestertiis DC deducta
vigesima PopuU Romani. That is to say, there was a handsome
market-place adorned with statues formed at the cost of about
248 Zara : Roman remains. [Ch. hi.
There is a tradition that this gateway was
brought to Zara from the old Roman town of Aenona
nine or ten miles off. It would be curious if it
should prove instead to have belonged to the tri-
umphal arch near S. Simeone.
In the public gardens are to be seen several old
Roman inscriptions and fragments of classic work,
and there are many others in the museum that has
been formed in the disused church of S. Donate.
But perhaps the richest and certainly the most
curious collection of Roman remains is that which
recent discoveries have brought to light under the
very walls of that church, and which we shall
presently describe. They have been traced by the
industry of Prof Hauser to at least four distinct
buildings, all of a magnificent character, and two
of them on a magnificent scale. There are also
pedestals among them of elaborate workmanship,
which must have carried seated statues either for
worship within the temples or for adornment of
the public squares. All this together with the
remains above ground, which have been already
described, shew that Jadera must have been a city
of wealth and consideration, adorned with handsome
buildings, and not unworthy of comparison with
some of the great provincial cities of Italy.
600,000 sesterces. Wlieler by the simple confusion of sestertii
and sestertia makes the cost ' six hundred and thirhj Sestertia,
which is a piece of money that weighelh about Two pence halfpeny,
and amounts to near Twelve pounds sterling ; which was a great
deal of money in those daysJ
CHAPTER IV.
Zara.
The churches of S. Donate, S. Pietro vecchio, S. Lorenzo,
S. Domenica, S. Orsola, the cathedral of S. Anastasia, the church
of S. Grisogono, the convents of S. Maria and S. Francesco, the
church and silver ark of S. Simeone, etc., etc.
Zara possesses a tolerably complete series of archi-
tectural examples of every period from the eighth cen-
tury downwards. It is particularly rich in buildings
of the earlier styles, although with one notable ex-
ception they have to be hunted for and discovered
under various disguises as magazines hay-lofts and
cellars ; but that one exception, the Church of the
Holy Trinity, now known as S. Donato, is not likely
to be overlooked by the most casual visitor. From
the interior of the town this church is not much
seen it is true, being enclosed by the cathedral
on one side and the houses of the Piazza dell' Erbe
on the other ; but from a distance the lofty central
drum with its pyramidal roof is the most con-
spicuous building that appears above the walls.
During the past hundred years it has been put to
a variety of uses. In 1 798 it ceased to be used for
religious purposes, the pictures were dispersed, the
250 Zara: S. Do7tato. [Ch. iv.
altars sold, and the Austrian government turned it
into a military store, inserting a floor to divide it
into two stories. In 1870 it was restored to the
authorities of the cathedral who let it to the ' So-
cieta enologica di Zara.' In 1877, chiefly in con-
sequence of the attention directed to it by the
publications of Professor Eitelberger, it was rescued
from the neglect into which it had fallen ; the
modern floor was removed, and the building is now
devoted to the purposes of a museum for the nu-
merous objects of antiquity discovered at Zara,
which had previously no home.
S. DoNATO (vid. Plan, Fig. i ) Ms a round church of
the same type as that of S. Vitale at Ravenna and
the cathedral of Aix-la-Chapelle, though it differs
from both in many particulars. It has a circular
space in the centre surrounded by a circular aisle,
and from the aisle three apses project eastward, of
which the middle one is larger than the other two.
This principal apse does not open to the church as
at S. Vitale by a lofty arch of the height of the
central space, but all three apses are vaulted at the
lower level of the circular aisle. Above this aisle
and the apses is an upper story like a triforium,
opening to the central space, and it is to this upper
gallery or triforium, which has three aj)ses of its
own over the others, that Constantine Porphyro-
^ For my plan, Fig. i, I have reduced to the same scale and
put together the plan of S. Donato by Prof. Hauser, and that of
S. Anastasia by Prof. Eitelberger, and supplemented them by
additions and corrections of my own.
C'H. IV.]
Zara : S. Donato.
2^1
genitus refers when he says there was a second
church over the firsts The ascent to this upper
Fi- I.
' "Eart hk kuI fTtf)os vaus TrXrjalov avrov (gc. the cliurch of S. Aiui-
stasia) flXr]f^aTlKui, rj ayla Xfju'ii' Koi f-ndv<xi toZ vaoxj avrov nuKiv erepof vaos
SiKrjv Karrj^ovixivuv, Kai avTos (IXrjfiariKof, fls ou Koi dvip^ofrai dia Ki>)(\(uii.
Const. Porph. de adm. Imp. ch. 29. Tlie cliurch was originally
dedicated to the Trinity.
252 Zara: S. Donato, [Ch. iv.
church is hia KoyX^ia';, by a stair that winds round
the outer wall, and now falls in with another stair
that has been contrived below it, after which the
two together form a grand flight for the rest of the
ascent, landing in a kind of atrium or antechamber
from which the upper church is entered. The
second stair however is evidently a subsequent
addition, for it cuts through and obliterates the
lower part of a circular turret which was probably
the campanile ; and as the stairs have been used for
a ' Santa Scala ' which the devout ascended as at
Rome on their knees, the second stair was no doubt
added for convenience of descent while the first was
being used for ascent in this manner.
This gallery or upper church probably was, as
Porphyrogenitus suggests, the church of the cate-
chumens, and it had its own distinct entrance from
the outside of the church by a little doorway at A.
(vid. plan) at the foot of the stahxase ^ This is now
blocked up, but those who have the enthusiasm
proper to archaeologists, and do not mind into what
dirty places they go in search of their object, may
see, as I did, the outside of it with its curiously
carved hoodmould, which is remarkable as the only
original architectural detail in the building (Fig. 2),
every other piece of carving — and there are but
few — being stolen from Roman Jadera.
^ The present door leading from the church to the stairs is
modern, dated 1733. Whether the upper church were intended
for catechumens or for women it would be equally in accord-
ance with ancient usage to provide a distinct entrance to it outside
the church. Vid. also Mr. Butler's Coptic Churches, vol. i. p. 20.
Ch. IV.]
Zara : S. Donate.
253
Indeed nothing could well be ruder than the
construction of this great church. Externally it is
perhaps no plainer than S. Vitale at Ravenna, or
other buildings of the age of Justinian, but they are
as superbly and delicately finished within as they
are simple without, while S. Donato is no finer
inside than it is outside. The central space, as has
Fig. 2.
been explained already, runs up the full height of
the building and was covered by a dome which
has now fallen in ; the circular aisle opens into the
central space by eight round arches, and is ceiled
with an annular barrel vault which forms the floor
of the upper gallery. The original stair is ceiled in
the same way. Six of the eight piers on each floor
between aisle and central area are huge masses of
plain masonry which are actually wider than their
intercoluminations, and the remaining two, which
254 Zara: S. Donato. [Ch.iV.
cany the arches opening mto the apses, are ancient
monoHthic columns with ancient capitals. The two
columns on the ground floor have preserved their
full proportions and bear composite Roman capitals,
similar, Prof. Hauser observes, to those of the arch
of Septimius Severus at Kome^. The upper pair of
columns are truncated in order to fit the heig-ht
allowed for them ; one of their capitals is Corinthian,
and the other was once composite, but its lower
part seems to me to have been rudely cut again in
Byzantine times in order to reduce it to the ne-
cessary diameter, only the upper part of the original
composite capital remaining as the Roman workman
left it.
The central dome is now gone, and the wooden
roof with its tiling is exposed to view from within
the church ; the circular aisle of the upper church
also has lost its vaulting, if it ever had any as the
Km avTo^ e'iXt]/j.aTiK69 implies, though there is little
evidence for it in the building itself.
The circular gallery of the up^^er floor is not so
simple in plan as that of the lower. In the first
place it has on the north side a second or outer
aisle communicating with it by arches, and oc-
cupying the space over the staircase ; in the next
there may be seen on the south side at D — E (vid.
plan of upper story) some columns and arches now
walled up, but evidently shewing there was once
something beyond on this side also. I believe Prof.
Hauser has conjectured that there was a second
' II tempio di S. Donato in Zara. Hauser e Bulic. Zara, 1884.
C'H. IV.] Zara: S. Donalo. 255
KoyXe'ia Oil this side, but there is no evidence for this,
nor does it seem as if it could have arrived at the
upper level soon enough to land at these arches.
Some further explanation is required ; and a clue is
furnished by an impost moulding at C (vid. plan) in
the wall of a house adjoining the chuich which
resembles those of the interior, and seems to imply-
that the wall F — C is coeval with and part of the
church itself In company with Monsignor Bianchi
and Professor Smirich, the Imperial Conservator of
Monuments at Zara, I penetrated a dense net-work
of courts and houses to the south of the church, and
by hunting in cellars and mounting to attics suc-
ceeded in tracing at H and G walls four feet thick,
forming a square building of the full height of the
double-storied aisle. This building had no opening
to the church on the ground floor except by the
doorway at B (vid. plan) which though blocked is
still visible, but on the upper floor it evidently
opened to the gallery or triforium by two pairs of
arches springing each from a central column D — E
(vid. plan of upper floor) which may be seen even
more plainly on the outside of the wall than the
inside. This made a large addition to the area of
the upper story, and rendered it worthy to be
described as another church above the first, an ex-
pression which seems hardly applicable to a mere
gaUery such as it now is. The central columns of the
arches of communication would, I believe, be found
if the wall were opened to be double, one behind
the other, for a column is visible close to the sur-
256 Zara: S. Donato. [Ch. iv.
face both inside and outside of the wall, which is
much thicker than the diameter of a single shaft.
The capital of one of them can be reached from an
attic window and proves to be nothing but a classic
base reversed, so that though the architectonic idea
of these arcades was graceful their execution was
probably very coarse and inartistic.
The same criticism may be applied to the other
scanty examples of architectural detail that the
building contains. The walls of the aisle are
decorated, if it can be called decoration, by curious
elongated niches, which run up the whole height
of the story, and are really not so much niches as
prodigious flu tings of the surface, and the impost
mouldings from which the vaulting and arches
spring are meagre in the extreme.
Such is the church of the Holy Trinity, a struc-
ture rude almost to the verge of barbarism, but
which does not fail to derive a certain simple dignity
from its ponderous construction (vid. Plate II).
Many theories have been broached as to its age
and builder. Some writers of daring but uncritical
imagination have seen in these rough walls a
veritable temple of the polished age of Augustus,
converted as they suppose to Christian uses by
Donatus I, who was bishop of Zara in the fifth
century. This theory requires no comment. An-
other theory is that it was built by Bishop Donatus
II, at the end of the fourth or beginning of the
fifth century, which would make it older than S.
Vitale, a church which is much more likely to have
Zara Pf<'^'- "
i.;^
'">>,
T.G.J
S Donato
Ch. IV.] Zara: S. Donato. 257
been the model from which it was imitated, for the
comparative rudeness of the work at S. Donato
points to a ruder and later age than that of Jus-
tinian. The most probable theory is that the
church was built by Bishop Donatus III, at the
beginning of the ninth century. This prelate, who
has been called the Ambrose of Zara, accompanied
Beato Doge of Venice in 804 as envoy from Charle-
magne to the Emperor Nicephorus at Constanti-
nople, to compose the quarrel that had arisen
between the Empires out of the Frank conquest of
Dalmatia. In the year 806 he visited the court of
Charlemagne at Thionville in company with ' Paulus
dux Jaderae,' as an envoy from the Dalmatians,
bringing their submission and laden with offerings
to their new master \ The treaties of 810 and 812
between the two Emperors, by which the maritime
cities of Dalmatia were restored to the Eastern
Empire and Zara became the capital of the By-
zantine province, may have given a stimulus to new
building plans, and Donatus, whose extensive travels
had acquainted hun with the churches of Constanti-
nople and Italy, and probably that of Aquisgranum,
was better qualified than his predecessors to originate
so vast a scheme as that of the church of the Holy
Trinity.
But we have not yet exhausted the wonders of
S. Donato ; the most curious part is still to come.
Built into one of the piers close to the entrance may
be seen a large marble block, between six and seven
^ Vid. General History in chapt. i, p. 22, note.
VOL. I. S
258 Zara: S. Donato. [Ch. iv.
feet long and three feet high, with the following
inscription in a panel surrounded by an arabesqued
border : —
IVNONI • AVGVSTAE
APPVLEIA
• M • FIL
QVINTA
svo
ET • L-
TVRPILlI
brocchI
LICINIANI
• FILlI •
NOMINE
TEST
•
PONI •
IVSS
This inscription, which was known and published
as long ago as i435\ misled the earlier antiquaries
into taking the existing building for classical work,
but recent explorations have explained the history
of this stone, as well as that of the classical columns
and capitals in front of the apses. In 1877 the old
pavement of the Christian church was taken up and
the area excavated to the depth of about four feet.
At this level was found the ancient pavement of a
Roman street or forum, and running diagonally
across the area of the church were the two lower
steps of what had evidently been a flight leading
up to a portico (vid. Fig. i). But the most surprising
spectacle revealed by this excavation is that of the
foundations of the Christian work. They consist of
huge fragments of more than one magnificent classic
building, entablatures with Corinthian enrichments,
marble columns cut or broken into lengths and laid
simply on their side, rich friezes with running scroll-
work in the best style of Roman architecture,
' By Ciriaco Anconitano. Bulk', p. 8.
Ch. IV.] Zaj'a: S. Do7iato. 259
dedicatory inscriptions, mouldings, and string courses,
all thrown flat on the pavement of the Roman town,
some on their sides, some uj)side down, and some
arranged corner^vise or awry with a rough approxi-
mation to the plan of the superstructure. The
whole mass of these fragments was filled in with
earth and rubbish, and covered over with the pave-
ment of the Christian church, so that till now their
existence was not even suspected. The two pairs of
columns that were saved and used in front of the
apses w^ere probably spared not from any admiration
or respect, but simply from the difficulty of making
new ones in that rude age. The rest seems to have
been trodden underfoot with an ascetic scorn for the
meretricious splendour of Pagan rites and Pagan
temples, and with a sublime irony to have been
made to carry the simple piers and coarse masonry
of the Christian church. It reminded me of the
figure of St. Gereon at his church in Cologne, mak-
ing a pedestal of the crouching figure of Diocletian
his ancient persecutor, — pride spiritual crushing
pride temporal.
By a systematic examination of the fragments
Prof Hauser is led to conclude that there are
among them the spoils of at least four public build-
ings. Two of these were of magnificent dimensions,
their columns being about thirty feet in height ;
both were of the Corinthian order, one with fluted
and the other with plain columns, corresponding
respectively with the two columns now standing
in the two squares of Zara. The block with the
s 2
26o Zara: S. Donato. [Ch. iv.
inscription ' Junoni Augiistae/ and a companion one
dedicated by the same lady ' Jovi Augusto ' which
the recent discoveries have unearthed, were probably
pedestals of sitting statues of the two divinities,
but whether the divinities were really Jupiter and
Juno, or Augustus and Livia under those titles, is
a question which archaeologists will probably debate
without ever arriving at an unanimous conclusion.
The fact that the fragments of classical architec-
ture on which S. Donato rests belonged not to one
but to several buildings disposes of the old story
that a temple of Augustus and Livia standing on
this site was purposely thrown down to make way
for it. In the ninth century Zara was no doubt full
of ruined buildings, of which a temple so dedicated
may have been one ; and they no doubt served the
townspeople as a quarry, that being the general use
to which buildings of ' the Pagans ' were put in the
middle and dark ages. To form the foundations of
the new church the largest blocks that could be
found would be collected from various parts of the
town and rudely arranged on the old Koman pave-
ment, while the smaller fragments would be used
in building the superstructure as ordinary walling
stones with their wrought faces inwards. In all
probability the upper walls are largely composed of
old materials of this kind, and in fact several pieces
of Roman moulding may be observed in the old
walls right and left of the corridor by which the
church is approached from the piazza.
It is singular that the builders of S. Donato
Ch. lY.] Zara: S. Pictro Vecckio. 261
should have trusted so confidently to the solidity of
the Roman pavement as to build their vast walls
and piers upon it without any foundation. The
pavement has stood this unfair test better than
might have been expected, and has carried the
church for a thousand years, but settlements have
nevertheless taken place, and there are serious
fissures in the wall in several places.
The old pavement has been traced under the
adjacent buildings for a considerable distance : I found
it everywhere within the area F C G H on the south
of the church, and the walls G and H were built just
like those of the- church on fragments of Roman archi-
tecture simply thrown down on the ancient flagging.
In size the church of S. Donato is inferior to its
companions at Ravenna and Aix-la-ChapeUe, and in
point of workmanship it is as far inferior to Aix-la-
ChapeUe as Aix-la-Chapelle to S. Vitale. The area
of the points of support at Zara is far greater in
comparison to the voids, and the proportions are far
less pleasing, the central space under the cupola
being so narrow in relation to its height as to
resemble a lofty hollow tower rather than a domed
area. For both these reasons it is very difficult to
get any satisfactory view of the interior, and the
difficulty is increased by the insufficient light. In
its original state the church must have been darker
even than it is at present, for most of the windows
are modern insertions, and even now the church is
badly lighted.
S. PiETRO Vecchio, whicli according to some
262
Zara: S. Pietro Vecchio.
[Ch. ly,.
opinions is the oldest church in Zara, is now a
storehouse forming the ground floor of a private
dweUing in a street near the Piazza dei Signori\
It consists of a double nave with a central arcade, a
"Zara. SPletro Vecchio, (a^er SmiTlch-)
■r-r
Zl If Feeb.
^ Metres
Fig. 3-
very unusual plan in this country and at this date.
The east end of both the naves is square, but the
angles of the square are brought into a semicircular
plan at the springing of the vaults by squinches,
' I am indebted to Prof. Smirich of Zara for the plan and section
of this building, Fig. 3.
Ch. IV.] Zara : S. Lorenzo. 263
and the vaulting thus finishes with a semidome just
as if the plan had been apsidal. This device is very
common in Dalmatian The western part is de-
stroyed to make way for the apse of the later
church of S. Andrea, itself now desecrated and
turned into a magazine. This apse has traces of
fifteenth-century painting. The arcade dividing
the two naves is made up of fragments of Roman
work clumsily adapted, one round column being
actually fitted with a capital that belonged to a
square pilaster, while the other has by w^ay of
capital what looks like a classic base upside do^vn.
The capital of the western pilaster is raffled in the
Roman way. The other imposts from which the
arches spring are simply moulded, and the vaults
are very unskilfully formed and ill-shaped. This
church might be of any age up to the eighth century.
It is said to be mentioned in a will of the year 908 -.
S, Lorenzo is a church partly destroyed, and
partly in tolerable preservation, now serving as a
lumber room to the house of the Austrian Com-
mandant in the Piazza dei Signori. (Plate III.) It is
said to be mentioned in a document of the year 9 1 9 -^
The architectural features of this church are partly
made up with antique fragments, but there is some
original work among them as well, and this may
perhaps be taken to show that it is of somewhat
later date than those churches which are entirely
* E.g. S. Croce at Nona, S. Barbara at Trail. See above, page 211.
^ Bianchi, Zara Crist iana, vol. i. p. 380.
^ Ibid. p. 447.
264 Zara : S. Lorenzo. [Ch. iv.
made up of stolen odds and ends. At A (vid. Plate
III) is a granite column, diminished with entasis,
and carrying a Byzantinesque cap which has no
necking. The impost block above it seems to be
the base of an antique pedestal, being moulded on
three sides but plain on the fourth, as if it had
stood against a wall. B has the capital of which I
give a separate drawing (Plate I. Fig. 6). Though
rudely cut it is not without character, and looks
like work of the ninth or tenth century, and as it
fits its shaft correctly it was no doubt worked for
its place. The capital of C is apparently of the
same date, but it is placed on an old granite column
which is too large for it ; one leaf is carved with
the figure of a saint, perhaps S. Lorenzo, and it has
the traditional caulicoli of the antique Corinthian
capital, but otherwise resembles B, D has an
antique capital of purely Boman character.
The apse has disappeared, and the western part
of the church is shut ofi" by a wall with a grating,
behind which it is said were the Venetian prisons,
the grating serving to allow condemned criminals
to hear mass.
The vaulting is singular : that of the nave is a
plain barrel with a transverse rib at each bay
springing from an animal now too much defaced
for recognition, but the little aisles are strangely
vaulted with a succession of semidomes on squinches
facing sideways. The original north door, which
has been removed for security to the museum in
S. Donato, has jambs decorated with a Bomanesque
Zara
PlcUe m
— . ,
x^.^
r<:«rt -
:^v ,.%,...
T.G.J
S Lorenzo
Ch. IV.] Zara : S. Domefiica. 265
running pattern, and a lintel formed like a pedi-
ment with a representation of Our Lord within an
oval wreath supported by an angel on either hand.
The form of this door-head resembles that of the
old duomo at Pola which bears the date 850 (vid.
inf chap. xxx. Fig. 103). The windows were
rounded headed slits, one to a bay, but all are now
blocked.
S. DoMENiCA, once S. Giovanni in Pusterla^ is
artistically the most interesting church of this
group, though probably not so old as the preceding.
It is raised on a cruciform crypt, and the upper
church consists of a nave and aisles, cross vaulted
and tied with iron rods, and reached by an external
stair with a door in the side wall, which is orna-
mented with Romanesque scroll-work. The imposts
of the vaults are carved with knot-work of the same
style and period. The east end is square externally
but formed into three apses internally, the side ones
so small as to be mere niches. Built into the ex-
terior w^all is a bas-relief of the ninth or tenth
century, representing the salutation, the nativity,
the adoration of the shepherds, and the visit of the
Magi, in groups under seven arches, and correspond-
ing in style and dimensions with another carved
slab in the museum so closely that they are supposed
to have formed the front or back of the same altar.
' It was dedicated to S. Giovanni Battista, and stood near the
postern gate. 'In scrittura infatti del 1446 leggesi, Cliiesa di
S. Giovanni Battista ovvero di S. Domenica.' Bianchi, Autichiti
llomane e Mudievali di Zara. Zara, 1883, p. 36.
266
Zara: S. Or sola.
[Ch. IV.
The church has a picturesque little campanile on
one side. It is now desecrated and belongs to
the family Stermich or Strmic : the crypt serves as
a cellar and the church as a hayloft.
A smith who lives opposite invited us into his
house to see an old wooden crucifix which he said
once hung in this church. The figure is about four
feet high, and though
now black was once
painted naturally. The
feet are placed side by
side, not crossed. The
style is that of the
thirteenth century,
but this in Dalmatia
is not conclusive as
to its date.
S. Orsola. The
foundations of another
very curious church,
resembling in plan the
ancient baptistery of
the Duomo, and sup-
posed to have been
dedicated to S. Orsola, were discovered in 1883,
when the sea-front of Sammichieli's fortifications
was demolished to make way for the Kiva nuova.
At A (vid. Fig. 4) was found a sarcophagus consist-
ing of a fragment of a large fluted column hollowed
out just as savages hollow out the solid trunk of a
tree to form a boat, and covered with a coped lid on
Fig. 4.
Ch. IV.] Zara: the Dtwmo. 267
which was carved a cross. Inside there was a skele-
ton which apparently had never been disturbed.
The foundations of the church were covered up
again because they came inconveniently in the
middle of a roadway, but their outline may still be
traced obscurely on the surface of the ground. The
sarcophagus has been removed to the yard at the
east end of the duomo. From the plan of the
church it seems probable that there was a campanile
over the western end^.
S. ViTO, a very early and interesting church, has
lately been destroyed to make way for a new shop.
It is described by Monsign. Bianchi and Professor
Freeman.
The Duomo. The cathedral of Zara, dedicated
to S. Anastasia, is one of those buildings that per-
plex the antiquary who is new to the architecture
of Dalmatia. He would, to be sure, see at once
that it is not the church which Porphyrogenitus
describes as floored with marvellous mosaics and
decorated with paintings that were ancient even in
the tenth century-. Some of the columns of cipoll-
^ The jilan was taken by Prof. Smirich and published by
Monsiguor Bianchi in his Antichita Romano e Medievali di Zara.
Compare La Trinitii near Spalato, Fig. 40, and the Baptistery at
Zara, Fig. i. See also above, p. 212.
^ O 8c vahs TTji nylas 'Avaaraaias eorl dpojiiKos, o/xoios tw XaXKonpa-
Tiuv vaa, fKTO. Kiovmv Trpaaivuv Koi XfvKcoi', oXos (iKoviafxtvos i^ v\o-
ypa(f)ias dp)^alas' 6 8i ndros uvrov (oriv imb truyKOTrij? 0avpa(TTrjs. Const.
Porph. de adm. Imp. c. xxix. The church of the QforoKos in
Chalcoprateia, a distiict of Constantinople, was originally a syna-
268 Zara: the Diiomo. [Ch. iv,
ino and white marble which he mentions may
perhaps still be doing duty in the nave arcades, and
fragments of the famous mosaics are still to be seen
in the floor mixed with the pavements of a later
age ; but the heavy cushion capitals in the nave
resembling our earliest Norman work, the alter-
nation of clustered piers with single columns dividing
the nave into double bays, and the arcading which
covers the west front and runs along the north side
recalling the duomo of Pisa, all belong evidently to
a later period than the Byzantine, though they
might still be taken for work of the twelfth century.
It seems, however, tolerably certain that the present
building was not begun before the thirteenth, and
as that century opened with the capture and
partial destruction of Zara by the crusaders it is
natural that tradition should connect the rebuilding
of the cathedral with the ruin of the city at that
time. According to one story therefore the crusa-
ders, prompted by remorse for their destruction of a
Christian city and the reproaches of Innocent III,
rebuilt the duomo, or rather, we must suppose, left
funds behind them for rebuilding it, for they sailed
from Zara after four months' stay. But although
it is true that Innocent in his letter to the Doge
Heni'ico Dandolo accuses him of having destroyed
churches, on the other hand we have the statement
gogue granted to the Jews by Constantiue, and was consecrated
as a church 130 years later by Pulcheria. Theophanes, p. 158,
ed. Bonn. It is curious to find in Trpdaivos an equivalent to the
Italian ' cipollino.'
Ch. IV.] Zara: the Duo7nQ. 269
of Thomas Archidiaconiis, who was an eyewitness
of the rebuilding of Zara, to the effect that the
crusaders ' left nothing but the churches standing,'
from which it would seem that the old cathedral
survived that disaster \ Whatever uncertainty,
however, may exist as to the reason of the rebuild-
ing and the date when it was begun, we know for
certain that the new cathedral was consecrated by
Archbishop Lorenzo Periandro, a native of Zara,
in the year 1285^, and taking into account the slow
^ ' Diruerunt eiiim omnes muros ejus et turres per circuitum et
universas domos intrinsecus, nil nisi solas Ecclesias relinquentes.'
Thorn. Archid. ch, xxv. Lucio says, ' Ecclesias etiam intactas
relictas ipsarum antiqua structura adhuc incolumis declarat/ de
Regno, iv. p. 154 ; but we do not know by what rule he measured
their antiquity. The extent to wliich the city was destroyed seems
to have been exaggerated. Dandolo simply says, ' maritimos muros
circumquaque dirui fecit et ibidem hyemare disposuit.' Had the
city been so far destroyed as to have been made uninhabitable,
it would hardly have been represented as suitable for the army to
winter in. ' Et lors vint li dus as contes et as barons, et leur
dist: " Seigneur, nos avons ceste ville conquise, la merci Dieu et par
la vostre ! or est yvers entres, et nos ne poons mais de ci movoir
devant la Pasque, quar nous ne troverions mie chevance en autre
leu, et cette ville si est moult riche et moult bonne, et de tous biens
garnie," ' &c. Joffi'oi de Villehardouin, c. xlix.
^ Lorenzo writes thus in 1285 to Gregorio, Bishop of Traii,
' Cum pridio, seu noviter, quando placuit vobis consecration! eccle-
siae nostrae personalitcr interesse, praesentibus vcnerabilibus patre
domino fratre J. archicpiscopo Spalatense, et vobis cum aliis suflFra-
ganeis ejus, atque nostris' , . . Farlati says the rebuilding was
entirely the work of Lorenzo, who conceived the project as soon as
he was made archbishoji in 1247, 'vetus quippe . . . erat male
materiata et ruinosa nequc magnitudine neque structura ncque
elegantia dignitati sedis archiepiscopalis respondebat.' The new
church was built on the same site as the old. IHyr. Sacr. Tom. v.
pp. 8, 80.
270 Zara: the Duomo. [Ch. iv.
rate of building during the middle ages, and more
especially in a poor country like Dalmatia, we may
safely assume that the work was begun at least
forty or fifty years, if not more, before that date,
and perhaps not very long after the opening of the
century.
The plan of the cathedral (Fig. i) isbasilican still,
though the age of basilicas was gone by on the
opposite shores of the Adriatic ; but the traditional
proportions of the ancient basilicas are forgotten or
neglected, for the nave is three times as wide as the
aisles. Piers with semi-attached shafts alternate
with cylindrical columns, forming double bays, two
in the aisle to one in the nave. There are four of
these double bays with a single bay beyond at each
end, and they are defined by flat pilasters at each
pier run up as high as the string course over the
triforium. The half-columns attached to the piers
have heavy cushion capitals, but the columns in the
centre of the pair of arches of each double bay are of
beautiful antique marble, and have capitals either of
debased Koman Corinthian work or imitated from
it, which probably belonged to the former basilica.
The pier at the entrance of the choir is now
disguised by a stucco casing carrying a stucco arch,
added absurdly in modern times to mark the division
between choir and nave. This pier is richer than
those in the nave, and has on three of its sides two
attached columns instead of one, while on the fourth
side towards the choir was a single attached column
with a Corinthian capital as was ascertained during
Ch. TV.]
Zara : the Diionio.
271
my visit by opening the stucco pier. This column
and a similar one on the pier farther east ran up like
vaulting shafts, though it is clear no vaulting was
ever contemplated. The capitals are either of
debased Roman work, or loide imitations of it in
later times. They are all Corinthian in type, and
have the strong Gothic abacus fully developed.
In the last double bay westward the marble
columns are fluted spirally.
Above the nave arches is a string course carved
with a curious leaf ornament
(Fig. 5), which occurs also at
Spalato and Trail, but is, so
far as I know, peculiar to Dal-
matia. Above this is a regular
triforium of small arches spring-
ing from square piers of stone,
in front of which were once
coupled colonnettes supporting the moulded imposts
The little arches have alternate voussoirs of white
stone and red breccia marble, and in their openings
is a balustrade with a deceptively early look. The
upper part of the walls with the roof and ceiling
are modernized.
A spacious apse ends the nave eastwards. It is
lined with red breccia marble to half its height ; a
marble seat for the clergy runs round the wall, and
Fig. 5.
* In 1885 the stucco mouldings which dipguised these piers
were being removed under the direction of Professor Smirich,
exposing distinct traces of a pair of little columns in front of each
square pier. They seem to have had square capitals and no bases.
272 Zara: the Duomo. [Ch.iv.
in the centre, raised on five steps, is the bishop's seat,
a marble chair of Byzantine character, ornamented
with round arched panels divided by coupled shafts.
The apse is lighted by six very narrow round-headed
slits splayed both inside and out, so that here, as in
the adjacent church of S. Donato,and several others in
Istria and Dalmatia, the central space is occupied by
a pier and not by a window, an arrangement some-
what strange according to our northern notions, but
suggestive of the use of the wall rather than the
window as a field for decoration in southern Euroj)e.
The paintings which once adorned the apse have
now disappeared.
The exterior of the apse is now disguised with
smooth yellow stucco, and has lost all traces of anti-
quity ; Professor Smirich, who has seen it uncovered,
tells me the masonry is not of smooth ashlar but
hammer-dressed, and if this were restored to view it
w^ould not only be a great improvement artistically
but might lead to some interesting discoveries. The
ruder construction of this end of the church and the
smallness of the windows suggest that the apse may
be a relic of the older basilica.
Below the apse is an extensive crypt, to which two
flights of steps descend, one on each side of the nave.
The plan of the crypt is irregular, for while the
apsidal end coincides with the apse walls above, the
rest is much narrower than the choir, and varies in
width in three places. The capitals of the stunted
columns are plain, fudged out simply from the round
shaft to the square of the impost, except one which
Zara
PJ.aU' /v.
Interior of Duomo
Ch. IV.] Zara: the Duomo. 273
is carved in the style of the ninth or tenth century.
Old bases of debased Roman work are used up again,
and one base rests on a slab carved with interlacing
knot-work laid flat on the ground, an evidence that
that part at all events of the crypt is not so old as
the Byzantine basilica. Another slab of the same
kind, much worn, is laid in the southern flight of
steps which ascends to the nave.
In the crypt is an altar formed of an imperfect
slab with a relief of S. Anastasia bound to two
stakes between palm trees, emblematic of her
martyrdom. Her name is inscribed in Lombardic
lettering of the thirteenth century, and although
this may of course have been added afterwards, the
style of the figure which has the feet, neck, and
other parts well and naturally modelled, seems to
me to point to that century rather than to an earlier
one.
The choir is splendidly furnished with stalls on
either hand and a magnificent marble baldacchino
over the high altar, and though the rest of the
interior is somewhat bare of architectural detail, this
part of the church is fully worthy of the metropolitan
see of Dalmatia (vid. Plate IV).
The baldacchino is on a gi-and scale, loftier, as the
Zaratini boast, than the famous one in St. Mark's,
and though it dates only from the fourteenth century
it preserves all the chaste severity of an earlier style.
It rests on four columns of beautiful cipoUino marble
which are ornamented something after the manner
of our Elizabethan cliimneys, the front pair being
VOL. I. T
2 74 Zara: the Dtiomo. [Ch. iv.
richly diapered with sunk work, and the back pair
fluted, one of them spirally and the other in zigzags.
Their capitals are imitated from classic ; and one of
them has little half-length figures cleverly enough
contrived in the place of caulicoli. The four arches
are pointed, and enclose a quadripartite vault with
diagonal ribs, and the whole is crowned by a hori-
zontal cornice of acanthus leaves ^ The execution
and detail of this splendid canopy are worthy of all
praise. An inscrijDtion in Lombardic lettering on
the front records its erection in the year 1332 in
the archbishopric of Giovanni di Butuane (Fig. 6).
\-\ i^Rofe-t)Ri-/lK)-efJDe:-mqqq>^xxi 1
Hqb RUIT noq O'p'-T'PR'D-tOW^'De-BV
rp o u:zrR.e:- 'dgf- (^va^(\ m ■. -^
^*r!L. Uirrrw. 1332. »
Fisj. 6.
The choir stalls (Fig. 7) are undoubtedly the most
magnificent examples of a class of woodwork that
abounds in Dalmatia and the Littorale, resembling
the well-known stalls of the Frari at Venice. At
Parenzo Cherso Arbe Lesina Trail Spalato and
Mezzo there are stalls that might almost be attri-
buted to the same hand as these, and in Zara itself
at S. Maria and S. Francesco there are two other
choirs similarly furnished. The stalls of Arbe have
^ The flat dome and figure of our Lord which now surmount
tlie baldacchino are not oriji'inal.
en. IV.]
Zara : tJic Diiovio.
275
T^TETRl
Fig- 7-
T 2
276 Zara: the Duomo. [Ch. IV.
the date mccccxlv. upon them, and these at Zara
bear the arms of four successive archbishops whose
episcopates cover the period from 1400 to 1495^.
They may be attributed to the earher half of the
fifteenth century, their date extending probably
from about 14 10 to 1450. In all these ten examples
there is a similarity that is a little monotonous, and
a coarseness of execution that is a little disappointing.
They will not compare in respect of fancy and refine-
ment with the best examples of French or German
woodwork, least of all with our English work, which
in point of artistic feeling for the nature of the
material, and luxuriant fancy in the mode of treating
it, is perhaps unrivalled. But all the same these
Dalmatian carvings have a splendid freedom in
their lines, and a luxurious fulness in their scrolls
and flourishes that is very effective, and they shew
a facility in drawing and technique that was perhaps
itself a snare to the workman and a hindrance to his
artistic growth. They are all no doubt the work of
Venetian carvers ; for we know those at S. Francesco
in Zara were made by an artist born indeed in
Tuscany but settled and naturalised at Venice ; and
thouofh the names of the artists of the other stalls
may not be known they all belong to the same Vene-
tian school.
There are seventeen stalls on each side of the
' Luca da Fermo, 1400-1420, a griffin holding a book; Biagio
Molino, 1420-1427, a mill-wheel; Lorenzo Venier, 1428-1449,
eix bars gules and argent; Maifeo Valaresso, 1450-1495, azure six
bendlets or.
Ch. IV.J Zara: the Duomo. 277
choir, including that of the archbishop on the north
and that of the Venetian provveditore ojoposite on
the south ^ Each stall is divided not only by elbows
but by shades of elaborately carved and pierced
scroll-work reaching up to and supporting the canopy.
The canopies are formed like fluted shells, and are
surmounted by ogee gables; little half-length
statuettes of prophets from Adam downwards form
their finials, each holdmg a scroll with his name, and
in the lower part of the pinnacles are still smaller
figures of saints in little niches, which, like the
prophets, have all been painted and gilt. The arms
of the four archbishops are carved on the elbows of
the standards, the lion of St. Mark appears in the
canopy of the stall of the provveditore, and the
shield of Mafieo Valaresso over the stall of the arch-
bishop. The influence of the coming renaissance is
observable in many of the details, and the arms of
Valaresso are supported by two amorini that have
quite burst free from Gothic tradition.
The exterior of the duomo is far finer than the
interior. The facade (Plate V) is the finest in
Dalmatia, and its round-arched portals, and tiers of
arcading that fill the whole upper part of the wall
and the gables, are equalled in their own style only
* The Venetians insii-ted on their governor being accorded
a seat of equal lionour with the bishop in the provincial cathe-
drals ; the provveditore was to be ' incensed,' and treated with the
same ceremony as the bishop, and he received the '■ ^mx' from a
priest of the same degree and title and vested in the same way
as the one who performed the same function for the bishop.
Vid. Cubich, Veglia, Part ii. p. 118, 145.
278 Zara: the Duonio, [Ch.iv.
in the churches of Pisa Lucca or Pavia. The con-
trast between the plainness of the lower story and
the rich detail of the upper part is very good ; and
the same artistic subordination is preserved in the
side wall next the Corso or High Street, which has
a plain wall below surmounted by an open arcaded
story just below the eaves. The whole is beautifully
executed in a white compact limestone that may
almost be considered a marble, and though it has
undergone restoration it is on the whole in an
admirable state of preservation.
The doorways are square openings with jamb
shafts, some of them spirally fluted, which cai'iy
semicircular arches enclosing a tympanum. In the
tympanum of the two lateral doors is the lamb and
flag, carved in an archaic style, and in that of the
central door are three niches of Italian Gothic
evidently of a later date than the rest, with the
Madonna and child in the centre between two saints.
A wide border of Romanesque scroll-work surrounds
the opening of the doorways. A few statues carved
in the solid stone of the pilasters flank the doors,
and the north-east angle is decorated with some
incised ornaments filled in with black cement in the
manner of the facade of the cathedi'al of Lucca.
The arcaded part above has evidently been dis-
turbed by several alterations : the lowest tier of
arcades, extending quite across the facade, has capitals
of an early Romanesque character, and the arcades
in the half gables of the aisles, with the great stone
beasts at their lowei' ends, are also in that style ; but
PlafrV
-■f^gg'-:^,-.|.^
-•S^'
?_,4^^
Ch. IV.] Zara: the Diiouio. 279
the arcading of the three upper tiers of the nave or
central part is very different, the shafts are much
thinner and are placed in couples, and their capitals
are later in character. Other uTegularities, one by
one, catch the eye ; in one aisle the columns of the
upper tier are over those of the lower, but in the
other over the centre of the arches ; the pilasters that
divide the central part from the wings cut off half
the arch on the north side ; and the disj^laced column
is set up naively in the centre of the aich it should
have carried. The two rose windows are evidently
of different dates, and the coping of the central
gable is clearly not of the same period as that of the
half gables of the aisles.
An inscription in Lombardic letters on the lintel
of the gi^eat door tells us that this Romanesque
facade is not even so old as the rest of the church,
but was actually built in the year 1324, a hundi^ed
and fifty years after Romanesque architecture in
England and France began its transition to Gothic.
ANO • D • MCCCXXIIII • TPR • DXI • lOHIS • DE •
BVTVANE • DI • GRA • lADRN • ARCHIEPI.
As the cathedral was only consecrated in 1285, we can
hardly suppose the west front needed rebuilding forty
years later in the episcopate of Giovanni di Butuane,
and we can only suppose that he either completed
what Lorenzo Periandro had left imperfect, by adding
a west front, or that he extended the church further
westward, for which there is some slight evidence in
a change of the courses of masonry of the side wall'.
' Farlati mcicly say?; tlio l^asilica, * inchoata oliin a Laurcntio
28o Zara: the Diiovio. [Ch. IV.
To his work belongs no doubt the greater part of the
facade with the lower rose window, but the upper
rose, and the three upper tiers of arcading of the
central part with their coupled shafts and the gable
above are probably work of the fifteenth century.
The north wall, with its arcaded gallery and the
little cushion capitals from which the arches spring,
has undoubtedly an early look, and I was tempted
to assio-n it to the time of Lorenzo, until I detected
on several of the little cushion capitals the shield
and arms of Archbishop Valaresso (i 450-1 495).
Still more perj)lexing is it to find on one of the
shallow buttresses at K (vid. Fig. i) the arms of
Archbishop Pesaro and those of Giov. Minotto and
Francesco Foscari, the Count and the Captain of Zara
between 1513 and 15 15, and to observe that west-
ward of this buttress the masonry changes its
character, and the lancet windows become pointed
instead of round-headed. I cannot but believe that
these arms, as well as those of Valaresso, refer
rather to restorations more or less extensive than
to the original construction, which from the charac-
ter of the work can hardly, even in Dalmatia, be
later than the thirteenth or early part of the four-
teenth century.
The sacristy is an apsidal building, perhaps for-
merly a church and of greater antiquity than the
present duomo, although it is now ceiled with per-
fectly developed rib and panel vaulting. A short
Periandro et magna ex parte perfecta demum absoluta fuit sub
pontificatu Johannis.' lUyr. Sac. Tom. v. p. 93.
Cu. IV.] Zara: tJie Dtiomo. 281
passage, now walled up, formerly led from this
chamber to the adjoining church of S. Donato^
The passage at L (vid. plan) between the sacristy
and the duomo, now opening to the yard, is evi-
dently an ancient chapel, though many of its
oriixinal features are obliterated. It has still a
barrel roof, strengthened by flat underlying ribs,
and it ends with a semi-dome over a square end,
with squinches in the angles like the early churches
already noticed at Zara, and several others through-
out Dalmatia. The east end of this building has
lately been modernized, but in the process the in-
teresting discovery was made of two windows filled
with slabs of perforated stone, of which examples
exist at S. Lorenzo in Istria, and at Grado (vid. ch.
xxxii. Fig. 115, and ch. xxxvi. Fig. 128).
In the Corso, a few yards distant from the east
end of the duomo, stands the unfinished campanile,
begun in 1480, a magnificent project of Archbishop
Maffeo Valaresso, which the jealousy of his relations
who did not choose that he should spend his sub-
stance in that way prevented him from completing.
Defeated in this intention he diverted his extrava-
gance to building a small castle or palace on a
rock in the bay of Cassione, some six or seven miles
south of Zara, of which the ruin still remains.
The most perfect ' souvenir ' of this magnificent
prelate which Zara possesses is the very beautiful
^ The apse of this sacristy was formerly visible from the cathe-
dral yard, but it is now hidden by an unhappy building which had
sprung into existence between my last two visits to Zara.
282 Zara: the Dtiomo. [Ch. IV.
and quaint pastoral staff which he gave to his
cathedral (vid. Plate VI). It is of silver, parcel gilt,
and bears this inscription : —
R + D + MAFEVS + VALARESSVS + ARCHIEPVS
HVADREXSIS + FACIENDVM + CURAVIT • M • CCCCLX +
From the ch^cumference of the crook radiate eleven
little figures ; in the centre is the figure of Christ
standing on a rock, and on each side of him are five
little half-length figures springing out of flowers,
and facing alternately to each side of the staff.
Each holds a scroll with his name, elia • p — simon •
• PA — AMOS • P — lEROBOAM, whom One is surprised
to find in such good company, tvbia — mose • p —
lEREMIA • P. — ■ DANIEL • P. ARON • P lACOBE^ In
tlie centre of the crook are statuettes of a female
figure, crowned and holding a book, and a bishop
with a pallium, who holds out a book ^\ath his right
hand. These have been variously supposed to be
the Virgin Mary and Archbishop Valaresso the
donor, or S. Donato and S. Anastasia the patron
saints of Zara. It may be objected to the latter
interpretation that Donato was not an archbishop,
and \vould not have the pallium.
The neck immediately below the crook has been
modernized, but all the rest of the pastoral is per-
fect and original. The next stage is a rich piece
of tabernacle work, triangular in plan, with a
pinnacle at each corner, and two stories high. In
the upper stage the three faces are occupied by
St. Peter, St. Jerome (?) and a bald saint holding a
^ Tlie labels with tvbia and iacobe art' not ongiiial.
Zara,
Plcd^ VI.
Pastorale of Archbishop Valaresso.
AD. 1460.
Ch. IV.] Zara: Treasury of the Duoiuo. 28
J
book ; in the lower by a Madonna with the Holy
Child, a figure of our Lord issuing from the tomb,
and a saint also apparently stepping out of a tomb.
St. George and two female saints occupy niches in
the angle pinnacles. The staff is plated with silver,
and the total height of the pastoral is six feet six
inches. The workmanship is very fine ; the little
figures are cast and engraved with a tool, and
the foliage of the flowers out of which the pro-
phets emerge is beautifully finished with file and
graver.
The treasury of the Duomo is very lich in church
plate, of which the following are the most remark-
able jDieces : —
1. A reliquary supported by four dragons, which
have lost their wings, and whose tails raised in air
meet in the centre and form a base for the upper
part. This begins with a cube of crystal surrounded
by cast and pierced metal work, bearing the figure of
a man in civilian dress blowing a horn, alternately
with that of a knight tilting. The knight has a
falcon, and a tree is introduced behind him. This
part bears the inscription — hic est spongia dni
«q:vA. POTAT FViT IN PATiBVLO CRVCis. Above is a
band of natural leaves with birds, and still higher
is a crystal tube containing the relic and surmounted
by a crucifix. The relic is labelled ' the holy thorn,'
by some one who apparently has not taken the
trouble to read the inscription on the reliquary.
2. A cofter containing the head of ' S. Giacomo
Interciso,' a martyr apparently of the fifth c(>iitury.
284 Zara : Treasury of the Diiomo. [Ch. iv.
Round the ring of the domed top is this in-
scription : —
+ EGO BOSNA IVSSI FIERI ANCH CAPSAM AD ONOREM
SCS lACOBI MARTIRIS OB REMEDIVM ANIME CHASEI
Vim MEI ET ANIME MEE.
Nine saints surround the drum, each under a round
arch supported by columns, fluted, twisted, and dia-
pered ; they bear their names — S. Petrus, S. Paulus,
S. Andreas, S. Jacobus, S. Tomas, S. Jacobus, S. Filip-
pus, S. Bartolomeus, S. Mateus. On the lid in round
medallions are these six figures — Christ, with the
monograms LC. — xc, Jachbus martyr, Judas, Simon,
Johannes, Maria. Monsign. Bianchi^ says there
was a prior of Zara named Chaseus or Chaseo in
the year 1096, who might very well be the person
mentioned in the inscription, for the lettering is not
unlike that of the epitaph of the princess Yekenega
at St. Maria (vid. Fig. 12, infra), who died in 11 11,
and the style of the figures and draperies is quite
consistent with that date. The whole work is in
silver, the ground left plain, and the figures gilded.
The classic head with flying hair in the crown of
the casket cannot have belonged to it originally.
3. The reliquary of S. Grisogono or Chrysogonus
is a long casket with three oval medallions of
enamel on the lid. The figures are beautifully
drawn and delicately chased in silver ; the ground
is filled in with a deep rich blue enamel, and there
^ Zara Cristiana, vol. i. p. 155. There is an illustration of
this reliquary in Eitelberger's Kunstdenk. Dalmatiens, p. 150. ed.
1884.
Cn. IV.] Zara: Treasury of the Duojuo. 285
is a cypress on each side of the figure chased in
silver and glazed with a transparent green enamel.
On the front are two square enamels in the same
style. The rest of the casket is covered with em-
bossed w^ork of vine leaves in scrolls in a style
which is extremely common throughout Dalmatia.
Round the lid is the following inscription in Lom-
bardic letters of silver on a red enamel ground : —
+ HOC OP • FVIT • FACT • TPR • NOBILIV • VIROR •
VITI • CADVL • VVLCIN • MARTINVSII • ET • PAYLI
DE GALCIGN • ANN • D • MCCCXXVI.
4. The reliquary of S. Orontius, an oblong box
covered in front and at both ends with silver plates,
is perhaps the most interesting piece in the treasury.
Ten arches, embossed on the front and sides, sup-
ported by columns either fluted or twisted, contain
each a figure which is bearded, long haired, and
dressed in oriental vestments, and holds a small
cross before his breast. Each has a nimbus, and his
name in characters which are a mixture of Greek
and Latin : —
(a) cabinianxc — (a) cj)eXiz — (a) bitaXic —
(a) CATOPVC — (a) PEnOCITXC — (a) CEnTIMI-
NVC — (a) lANYAPIYC • — (a) APOJTATIOC • —
(a) ON0l)PAT)(C. — (a) (j^OOPTVN ATI AN VC.
On the back is now only a plate with the inscription
in Roman characters + sergiys • f • mai • nepos •
ZALLAE • FECIT • HANG • CAPSAM • SCO ' CAPITI •
ARONTii • MARTiBis. On the top is the scutcheon
of Archbishop Pesaro (i 505-1 530), when some re-
pairs were probably effected. The industry of
2 86 Zara: TreasiLvy of the Duomo. [Ch. iv.
Monsign. Bianchi has traced the names of Madius
and Zella in documents of 1067 and 1096', and that
of Sergius tribunus in one of 1 091, who most probably
is the person mentioned as the donor on the loose
plate affixed to the back. But the front and end
plates with their Greek saints are probably Byzan-
tine works of an older date than this, and have
evidently once belonged to a different casket, for
they do not fit the present one at all well, as may
be seen in Prof Eitelberger's illustration 2. They
most likely date from the eighth or ninth century,
and were adapted to the jDresent casket by Sergius,
who gave it to the church at the end of the
eleventh. From a calendar of 1 5 1 6 it appears pro-
bable that this reliquary was once at Grado : ' Ebre-
duni in Gallia S. Orontii. Mart, qui in persecutione
Diocletiani martyrio coronatus est, et ejus caput ex
Gradensi Ecclesia ladram translatum^.' This is
especially interesting because at Grado also inscrip-
tions exist in which Latin and Greek letters are
used indiscriminately ^.
5. A reliquary professing to contain a finger of
St. John Baptist, made in the form of an arm, with
plaques of transparent enamel in the midst of scrolls
of vine leaves. It is inscribed in Lombardic letters.
^ The name Zella aj)pears among tliose of the witnesses to a deed
of Cresimir in 1072, conveying certain crown lands to the convent
of S. Maria at Zara. Luc. de Regn. ii. ch. xv.
^ Kunstdenk. Dalm. p. 153, ed. 1884.
^ Bianchi, Zara Crlstiana.
* Yid. infra, chapt. xxxvi, on Grado.
Ch. IV.] Zara: Treasury of the Diiomo. 287
DIGITYM • SANCTI ' lOHANXIS • BAPTI8TE, and dates
probably from the fourteenth century.
6. Another reliquary in the form of an arm, with
this inscription round the wrist in raised Lombardic
letters : — ego chacia vsor dimitrii • feci • fieri •
HOC • opvs. The arm is of plain metal, enriched
with filigrana and set with stones and patterns in
cloisonne enamels. The triangidar base is of cast
metal, raised on three feet, reminding one by its
form of the great candelabrum at Milan, Each
side has in the centre a winged figure with scej^tre
and orb in the midst of open scroll-work of twelfth-
century cliaracter. Monsign. Bianchi says that
Demetrius, husband of Chacia, was prior of Zara in
1 162, a date which is full early for the workmanship.
This is the best of the numerous arms in the Trea-
sury.
The Baptistery, adjoining the cathedral to the
north (vid. plan. Fig. i), is evidently a building of
great antiquity, and belongs by its plan to a class
of churches of which Dalmatia contains several ex-
amplest The destroyed church of S. Orsola at
Zara (vid. Fig. 4), which has been described, and
the half-ruined church of SS. Trinith,, near Spalato
(vid. Fig. 40, infra), correspond with this bajotistery
not only in plan but in dimension, the three having
almost to an inch the same diameter of twenty feet
for the central dome, which would seem to have
been the standard measurement foi- this class of
building. They consist of a circular chamber covered
' Vid. sup., account of Dalmatian arcliitecturt', p. 212.
2 88 Zai'a: S. Grisogono. [Ch. iv.
with a dome, and surrounded by six apses, each
covered with a semi-dome, but while at Spalato the
curved walls of the apses shew outside the church,
here at Zara the building is a hexagon externally,
and the walls are consequently more massive. It
has now three doors, but none of them are original,
and that to the north is as late as the time of
Archbishop Valaresso, whose arms it bears within a
renaissance wreath. The original door was no doubt
through the south apse, opening direct into the
Duomo, The interior is lighted by six windows, one
over each apse arch.
The red breccia marble font is very curious, and
though standing within a hexagonal buUding it is
octagonal. The sides are ornamented with shallow
romanesque arcading, like the archbishop's throne in
the tribune of the cathedral.
The Church of S. Grisogono is the most in-
teresting in Zara after the Duomo. It was the
church of an abbey which dated from remote anti-
quity and ranked as one of the most important
conventual establishments in Dalmatia. Originally
dedicated to S. Antonio, and served by Egyptian
monks, it was rededicated in 649 to S. Grisogono,
when the relics of that saint were brought from
Aquileia, and when he was formally adopted as
patron of the city\ A testament of 908 contains a
^ Bianchi, Zara Cristiana, vol. i. p. 296. It is said that the
cavalier who aj)pears mounted on a black horse in the arms of the
city represents S. Grisogono, and that the device dates from this
period.
Ch. IV.] Za7'a : S. Gi'isogono. 289
bequest for repairing the church and convent ; and
in 986 they were rebuilt by Majo or Madius, rector
of Zara and governor of Dahnatia, who reorganized
the brotherhood under another Madius, a Benedic-
tine monk, whom he invited from Monte Cassino.
The new church is described as large and splendidly
furnished with marbles and precious metals. It
was again rebuilt in 1 175 by Archbishop Lampridio,
whose reconsecration of the church was recorded by
an inscription on the ' triumphal arch ' of the apse,
which will be referred to presently. There was
Ficr. 8.
another consecration of the church in 1407, and
it is important to ascertain how much of the church
belongs to the latter date, and how much, if any-
thing, to the former.
The plan is so far basilican (Fig. 8), that it has a
nave with two aisles, wooden ceilings, and three apses
at the east end ; but here, as at the Duomo, the
arcades spring from columns and piei^ alternately,
and consequently are not strictly according to the
old basilican type. The piers are square with semi-
columns attached to them, and there are cross
VOL. I. u
arr! o the outer wall.
heaiitiful marble,
seem dimi-
, and thev
•esting
rerior. The apses
-.16 extreiiioly beaatiiui (i'iate VII) ^ the open
gaUery wit! '" ^ -licate colonnade being equal to
ar-v-fl.'no- f,- .,n ',, n,.' T.<:r>Lbard churches of
•' ehiir'^h ncTft the.
, CQarar! '■
.s., ..-. : ihe
j. small round-
;y splayed from the outside
iiiddle of the wall. The arcaded gallery
<n tiie apse has little cushion capitals and tvv .
|ilain square orders which are eccentric, the outer
order ly^hij?- stilted so ^•^' ''" make the inner one
v-kUr uv lii • c^o^\^l ti the springing, a very
common de^^ce in Italiar esque work, and
one that is employed at ' • •
• 'r' fhe ^jxhln over the princip.'
•bich it is not easy t' and which i un-
■ L, ' ' ■* till my drawing iia- vt-Ur.,- ■•.,
Zara .
PLatoMT.
TGJ
S Crisogono
I
Ch. IV.] Zara: S. Grisogono. 291
far everything corresponds with the architecture
of the end of the twelfth or beginning of the
thirteenth century. The details are similar to
many in the Duomo, which date probably from
the middle of the thirteenth century, and it is
difficult to assign the work at S. Grisogono to a
later date than this. It is true Dalmatian art
lagged behind that of western Europe, but even
if we suppose the present building to be the church
of 1 1 75 it would still be a century later than
very similar work at Pisa, and it is impossible to
believe that a design so purely romanesque, and
so free from suspicious traces of the later styles,
w^hich would be sure to have crept in had the
building been an anachronism, can really be the
work of the fifteenth century. The latter view,
however, is seriously maintained by some writers,
and among others by Professor Eitelberger, who
takes the opportunity of reading a lesson on the
unprogressiveness of the arts in Dalmatia. On
the other hand, Monsign, Bianchi gives some
particulars which confirm the conclusions to which
the architectural style itself would naturally lead
us. According to him the principal apse was once
adorned with a mosaic like those at Rome Ravenna
and Parenzo, which existed till 1791, when the
church had the misfortune to be restored, and the
mosaic with many other matters of interest was
destroyed. Fortunately a drawing of it which
was made in 1771 has been preserved, together
with copies more or less complete of the inscriptions
u 2
292 Zara : S. Grisogono. [Ch. iv.
it contained, which suffice to fix its date. The
following is Monsign. Bianchi's accounts ' The
mosaic represented the Saviour ivith the Virgin on
his right, and St. John the .Evangelist on his left.
Below them a band, ivhich ran round the ivhole semi-
circle, contained an inscription ivhich could not he
deci2:>hered, and beneath it hi twelve pictur^es were
seen the figures of the Apostles with their proper
names, some of ivhich were still legible. The epoch
of the work was 2^^'<^ciseli/ indicated by certain in-
scriptions, while below the figures of the Apostles
Siino7i and Judas coidd be traced the following
ivords : —
HOC OPVS FIERI IVSSIT STANA FILIA COMITIS
PETRANA lADERaE ET Dalmaticic Vroconsulis
. . . It shoidd be observed that in a document
of 1 1 34 Tnention is made of Pietro, called also
Petrana, count of Zara. Besides this, round the
front arch ran the following legend, which being
much damaged by time, has perhaps in some parts
been not very well copied, and which ive will attemp>t
to comp>lete as well as we can in italic letters ^ : —
SVMMA MAIESTAS TVA TVAQ • POTESTAS
OMNIA GVBERNAS PVGILLO CVNCTA SVSTENTAS
ANNO MILLENO XPI DECIES QVOQVE DENO ET DECIES SEXTO
TER QVINTO MSEQ • MAio die BiusB'Em Mensis Qvarto Lam-
2oridius archiepiscopus metropolitan's hanc ecclesiam de-
dicavit sancTO c/^risogono qvo gavdet iadra patrono
XPO REGNANTE QuiyiqUC SECUL.A FVIT DE ANTE * * * *
^ Bianchi, Zara Cristiana, vol. i. p. 301.
^ The original seems to have run in rhyming hexameters which
Ch. IV.] Zaj'ii: S. Grisogono 293
However Imperfect this record of the vanished
mosaic may be, it seems clear that it bore the date
of the consecration of the church in the year 11 75,
and the name of the donor Stana or Anastasia
daughter of Petrana or Pietro count of Zara whose
name is found on a document of 1 1 34, who is also
well known as the Venetian count of Zara at whose
instigation the see was raised to an archbishopric
in 1145^; and this seems to dispose of the theory
that the apses though romanesque in style were
really built at the end of the fourteenth or beginning
of the fifteenth century.
The apses carry with them the south wall with
its arcades and deeply splayed windows, all of which,
if the evidence of the drawing of 1771 may be
believed, date from the latter part of the twelfth
century.
The case of the west front is somewhat different :
the ends of the south aisles with their half gables
are in the same style and of the same date as the
side wall, and have preserved their original copings,
which are carved with a series of rosettes, and
supported by grotesque beasts at their lower end,
just like those at the Duomo. But the central
part forming the west end of the nave is of much
later workmanship, and though it still preserves
the round ai'ches and the tiers of arcades of roman-
the copyist and Monsign. Biaiiclii in liis coiijectiirul restoration
have lost sight of.
* * Comes vero civitatis erat co tempore Petrana.' Thoni. Archid.
C. XX. . 4
294 Zara: S. Grisogono. [Ch. iv.
esque architecture, the details and proportions
belong rather to the fifteenth century than to the
twelfth, and this part may very likely date from
the time of rededication in 1407. The west door
has a lintel with round arches above it inclosing
a tympanum, the arches consisting of four shallow
square orders slightly horseshoed, and surmounted
by a pediment. At some height above this is an
arcade extending across the front, with round arches
springing from slender coupled columns like those
in the upper part of the facade of the Duomo, which
as I have already remarked are evidently later
than the rest. Here, however, there is no central
rose window, and the back wall of the arcades is
not flat but hollowed out into a series of shallow
niches.
On the tympanum of the west door is an in-
scription in Lombardic lettering which is now
almost obliterated, having unfortunately been only
painted on the stone and not incised. According
to Monsign. Bianchi it recorded the rebuilding of
the town walls, which was begun in 1298, and
it might have been read as follows : —
AD HONOREM DNI XPI SALVATORIS
SANCTIQVE CHRYSOGONI lADERAE PROTECTORIS
MVRVS VRBIS IADERAE FVIT INCHOATVS
DIE XII ADSTANTE NOVEMBRIS
INDICTIONIS BIS SENAE ORDINE LABENTIS
SVB ANNIS XPI MILLE DVCENTIS
NONAGINTA OCTO PLVS COMPVTI LEGENTIS
EXISTENTE COMITE LEONARDO CHRYSOGONO
1
Ch. IV.] Zara : S. Grisogono. 295
but I cannot believe this doorway as old as the
date of the event recorded upon it. The whole
of this later work, doorway, ai'cading, gable, and
coping, is of an attenuated and meagre character,
poorly designed, and contrasting very unfavourably
with the earlier work of the south aisle and
apses.
Whatever may be the date of the church of S.
Grisogono, it is, with the exception of the west front,
a perfect example of romanesque architecture at its
best. Though not large, it is on a scale sufficient
for dignity, the nave measuring about ninety-five
feet by tw^enty-five, and the nave and aisles together
being about fifty-two feet hi width ; it is admu^ably
proportioned according to the rule which seems to
have been generally accepted as proper for basilican
churches, the nave being approximately four times
as long as it is wide, and twice as wide as the aisle;
the details are well studied and refined, and their
execution is nearly perfect.
To the north side of the small churchyard in
front of the west end is the campanile, once among
the loftiest in Zara, but now barely overtopping
the surrounding buildings, the upper part having
been so damaged by a fire in the neighbouring
houses in the year 1645 that it was found necessary
to take it down. The date of its construction is
given by an inscription on the south side in lead
letters beaten into the stone.
296
Zara : S. Maria.
[Ch. IV.
AD LAVDEM • DEI • ET B ' CIRY
SOGONI BERNARDVS lADE,
EN? MONACHVS • HVIVS • AE
DIS • PRIOR • SVA • ALIORVMQ
MONACHORVM • CVRA • ET
IMPENSA • M-D-XLVI.
I
The floor of the eastern part of the church is full
of carved sepulchral slabs, among which is one
of Giovanni Rosa, bishop of Veglia, who died in
1 549, bearing his effigy in relief and his arms
charged with a rosette. An interesting crucifix
of painted wood hangs on the aisle wall.
The adjoining convent was suppressed in 1807 ;
its buildings which had been rejDeatedly recon-
structed were destroyed in 1822, and on its site
were erected the buildings now occupied by the
Ginnasio and the Scuola reale of Zara.
N
Convent of S. Maria. The church of S. Maria
and the convent of Benedictine nuns attached
to it can boast an antiquity scarcely inferior to that
of the convent of S. Grisogono. The church of
S. Maria minore which stood on its site is mentioned
as far back as the year 906, and in 1066 it was
granted by the Benedictine monks of S. Grisogono
to Cicca, sister of Cresimir king of Croatia and
Dalmatia, who purposed founding a nunnery of
their own order. Cicca rebuilt the church, and
retirino- from the world after the death of her
Ch. IV.] Zara: S. Alaria. 297
husband, was herself the first abbess of her new
foundation. Special privileges were granted to
the monastery by Cresimir her brother in 1066^ ;
and in 1072 the new buildings were consecrated
by Andrea, bishop of Zara, with the assistance of
the bishops of Arbe Nona Veglia and Belgrad
(Zara-Vecchia), and of Giovanni Ursini bishop of
Trail and four Benedictine abbots, who happened
to be assembled in a provincial council. Another
instrument of king Cresimir dated in this year
conveys to the convent certain royal lands, and
speaks of the ' monasterium S. Mariae Monialium
rogatu sororis meae, quod noviter factum est ladere,
Cichae, &c.' ; and a third document, dated also 1072,
' in die consecrationis ejus basilicae,' contains a
gi'ant of the island of Solve to the abbess Cicca
and her sisterhood by the prior clergy and people
of Zara- These privileges and concessions were
confirmed in 1102 by Coloman of Hungary after
he had assumed the style of king of Dalmatia and
Croatia^ ; and his triumphal entry into Zara in
1 105 was commemorated by the erection of the
campanile of the convent which is still standing,
^ ' Anno Incarn. D. N. I. Christi, 1066. Dubcyzi (sc. Conslantine
Ducas) Constantiuopoleos Imperante. Ego Cresimir Eex Croatiae
et Dalmatiae filius Stephani Regis, concessione Laurentii Spalat.
Arcliiepiscopi, omniuraque iiostri Iicgui Episcopoiiim, et laudations
nostri Ducis Stephani, caeteroruinque Croatiae Coniitum, do
Regiam libertatem monasterio 8. Mariae Jadrensis, quod soror
mea Ciclia fabricavit,' &c. &c. Luc. de Regn. ii. c. xv. p. 98.
"^ Idem, p. 102.
' Idem, p. 113.
298 Zara: S.Maria. [Ch. iv.
and on which till a few years ago might be read
this inscription : —
ANNO INCAIl DNI NRI IHV XPI MIL CV
POST VICTORIAM ET PACIS PRAEMIA
lADER^ INTROITVS A DEO CONCESSA
PROPRIO SVMPTV HANC TVERIM
SC^ MARI^ VNGARI^ DALMACI^
CHROATI^E CONSTRVI ET ERIGI
IVSSIT REX COLOMANVS^
Cicca died in 1096, and her daughter Vekenega,
who was married to Coloman but had been re-
pudiated by him 2, following her mother's example
took the veil, and became abbess of S. Maria in
her stead. She died in mi, and her tomb with
its contemporary inscriptions, which is still to be
seen within the walls of the convent, is one of the
most interesting historical monuments in the city.
The church is flanked by the Calle Larga, from
which a door leads into a forecourt which, like that
at S. Grisogono, may perhaps have been at one time
an atrium preceding the basilica. The church retains
nothing of its original character, for though the
shell may possibly be of Cicca's building, it has been
clothed in the garb of the renaissance, and its an-
tiquity, if it has any, is not recognizable. The
facade and the south side which flanks the street
are gracefully designed in the style of the Lombardi,
and probably put on their present form at the end
^ Vid. Lucio, de Regn. iii. c. iv. p. 115, and Bianchi, Zara
Cristiana, vol. i. p. 315.
^ Bianchi, Zara Cristiana, vol. i. p. 322.
Ch. iy.] Zara : S. Maria. 299
of the fifteenth or beginning of the sixteenth cen-
tury. The interior has suffered restoration still
more recently, and is now smothered in rococo orna-
ments of stucco. There is in fact nothing whatever
to be seen at S. Maria except within the precincts
of the convent, and as this is still inhabited by
Benedictine nuns who are not allowed to see or be
seen by the outside world it is of course inaccessible
to ordinary visitors. However, by the kindness of
his Excellency the Archbishop of Zara I was allowed
the rare privilege of entering the convent, and was
shewn everything it contained which was worth
seeing; a privilege which I believe has only been
extended to one or two laymen beside myself
We were first shewn some handsome altar-cloths
which were brought into a parlour outside the
cloister precincts in order that my wife might see
them, for curiously enough women are even more
rigorously excluded from the interior of the convent
than men, and I was told that even Madame Ivano-
vitch, the wife of the governor of the province, had
never penetrated beyond this parlour. The older of
the two ' antependia ' is embroidered with figures in
gold on a red ground. The lines of the drapery are
traced in a red line on the gold, and the faces have
the lights worked in shades of flesh colour, the red
silk ground being left for the darker tints. This
dates probably from the fourteenth century. The
other altar-cloth is the finer of the two, but a little
later in date.
Passing the porter's lodge after being scrutinized
300 Zara : S. Maria. [Ch. iv.
through a gratmg, I was received by the abbess and
another nun and conducted to the inner court of the
convent, which is spacious and prettily filled with
flowers. The greater part of the surrounding build-
ings are modern, but on one side a simple cloister
remains, consisting of columns supporting a wooden
architrave and a pent roof This once ran along the
western side also, but has within the last twenty or
thirty years been replaced by a large modern build-
ing containing rooms for the nuns, which is by no
means an addition to the architectural beauty of the
quadrangle. Worst of all, this great intruding block
of building hides the lower part of King Coloman's
campanile, which rises in the corner of the courtyard
and was formerly visible from the ground upward;
and with inexcusable carelessness the end wall has
been allowed to conceal the inscription on the tower
which records Coloman's triumphal entry into Zara,
and his erection of this very campanile as a memorial
of the event. Surely an opening might have been
left in the new wall to expose this precious piece of
history in stone, or at all events some note might
have been made of its position, which is now lost,
and could only be recovered by demolishing the side
of a stah'case.
The tower (vid. Plate YIII) is a fine example of
that romanesque type of campanile which runs
through Italy and Germany, from Rome to Verona,
and from Verona to Cologne. It has the same
straight unbuttressed outline ; the same groups of
windows, increasing in number as the tower rises
Zara
Picue nu.
S Ma rig
Ch. IV.] Zara: S.Maria. 301
stage alcove stage, and set in shallow panels between
flat pilasters ; and the same window shafts set back
to the middle of the thickness of the wall, and
carrying imposts that project fore and aft to take
the thickness of the wall above. The last-named
feature of the romanesque campanile survived in
Dalmatia at least till the seventeenth century, and
I am not sure that if there were a tower to be built
there now the Dalmatians would not build it in the
same way.
To the south of the quadrangle, interposed be-
tween it and the church, is the Sala capitolare or
chapter-house, a building of the highest architectural
importance, being coeval or nearly so w^ith the foun-
dation of the monastery; which, though sadly dis-
figured by modern alterations, preserves under its
disguise of stucco and colour-wash the romanesque
work of the days of Cicca and Yekenega. It is a hall
about thirty-six feet long and eighteen w4de (Fig. 9),
with four windows and a central door on the north
side, the party wall of the church on the south, in
which there is a grated window generally closed by
shutters, the campanile at the west end, and the
party wall of other conventual buildings at the east.
It is covered by a barrel vault strengthened by four
underlying transverse ribs of plain squared stone
springing from pilasters or vaulting-shafts. The
back of this barrel vaulting may be seen from the
stairs that lead to the upper part of the tower, and
from the regularity of its masonry, and the stone
channelling for rain-water which is fornied between
302
Zara: S. Maria,
[Ch. IV.
NORTH AISLE OF THE CHURCH OF S- MARIA
Fig. 9.
i
Ch. IV.]
Zara : S. Afar/a.
\o'\
it and the side wall of the church, it seems that the
exterior was intended to be exposed to view without
any roof over it. The idea of a semi-cylindrical
covering, vault and roof in one, had a great attrac-
tion for Dalmatian architects : at Sebenico we shall
see it triumphantly realized on a stupendous scale,
and at Spalato we shall find its origin in the little
shrine of Diocletian's palace.
At the springing level of the barrel vault a cornice
or stringcourse runs round the hall, which is en-
:si.
^ HA^vVA'.ll
^v^-| vkK| '^wa/A,\ -,
Fig 10.
riched with a simple romanesque leaf-pattern (Fig.
lo), which is also to be found in a stringcourse at St.
Mark's in Venice. All the windows and the door
are round-arched of course, and seem to have been
quite plain, but they are now so disguised by stucco
mouldings that it is difficult to tell what they were
like originally.
In the south-east corner of the hall is the monu-
ment of Vekenega, the daughter of Cicca, and repu-
diated wife of Coloman, who buried herself and her
sorrows in this convent, and succeeded her mother
as abbess. It consists of a recess in the wall, which
504
Zara : S. Maria.
[Ch. IV.
probably once penetrated its whole thickness, and
opened into the church as well as into the chapter-
house. The front is formed of two small arches
Fiff. II.
within an including arch (Fig. 1 1 ), and has four
sunk panels with inscriptions, of which that over
the arch is the epitaph of Vekenega, who died in
the year mi (Fig. 12), which with its puzzling
abbreviations expanded reads as follows : —
LAVDi: NITHNS AfVLTA ■ lACET ■ HIC VEKENEGA SEPVLTA
qVAE FABRICAM TVBRIS SIMVL ET CAPITOLIA STRVXIT
HAEC OBIT VNDENO CENTVM POST MILLE SVB AEVO
QVO VENIENS CEBISTVS CAENIS GESTAVIT AMICTVS
NOS SABET EST ANNVS QVINTVS QVO REX COLOMANNVS
PRAESVL ET EST DECTMVS QVO GREGORIVS FV IT ANNVS.
Ch. I\M
Zara : S. Maria.
i05
m) WHS mm l AdTiC VI-:ReN:0AS Ef^I ja
a. R B RStRIS 5AVLeT(SR?Li^STiVX
1^ OBIT VhDMCEf^^p'oni^SVBc^VO
@.01EW€NSXB ^RWS6ES"P.4TAnidlS
R5U? E T D (L/^q:06&SFV] T^fNNV^
ORETWISPE
CTOTDICFMS
IN PACEWI
ZSCRT
C(K?L\GiKh
i6/iTFL/-nas
ZARA
S n A R I A
AD- I M I
H(C(ENlEtSWL
TCM FERETHOL
EERODOSE
pcLeRcn-Hvic
PIEDICANI^E
DAREQVIEM
DOIilNE
Fig. 12.
Vekenega's claim to have been the builder of the
tower and the chapter-house probably means tliat
they were built while she was abbess and under her
supervision ; the tower at all events was built, as we
have seen, by her quondam husband Coloman, at his
own expense, as he was careful to record, not only
outside the tower by the inscription which is now
unhappily invisible, but also on the inside, as we
shall see presently.
The lower tablet contains five elegiac couplets in
VOL. I. X
3o6
Zara : S. Maria.
[Ch. IV.
honour of A^ekenea-a, written in the same character
and of the same date.
RES FLVITANT CVNCTAE MVNDI VELVT IMPET VNDAE
QVICQVD ET EXORITVR LABIT ET MORITVR
MENTE DEYM PVRA SEMPER VEKENEGA SECVTA
NON PENIT MORITVR SED MORIENS ORITVR
NAMQ. I'ROBOS MORES CVPIENS SERVARE SORORES
ACTiB • EXCOLVIT VOCE QD HAS MONVIT
HOSTIS AB INSIDIIS ADITVS BENE CAVIT OVILIS
QVAQ • REGENTE DOMVS CREVIT ET ISTE LOCVS
IN FESTO SACRI COSMAE MIGRAT ET DAMIANI
VT SIT IN ARCE DEI VITA PERENNIS EL
A narrow doorway through nearly four feet of
masonry in the west end of the capitular hall admits
to the basement of the tower, a low vaulted chamber
containing nothing but the tomb of the last abbess,
who was by special jDrivilege buried here in accord-
ance with her dying request. The vaulting of this
chamber forms the floor of a small chapel contained
within the tower, which opens into the capitular
hall by a window where, according to tradition,
Vekenega used to sit to hear mass. This chapel is
reached from the capitular hall by a narrow stair,
for which just enough space is left between the
tower and the church, and which finishes with a
square landing, whence a square doorway under a
round arch admits to the interior of the tower.
The chapel is very curious. In each corner there
is a detached column standing well away from the
I
Ch. IV.]
Zara : S. Maria.
507
Avail and carrying a massive cushion capital with a
heavy abacus carved with a leaf ornament. Two of
the columns are cylindrical and two octagonal, and
on the four cushion faces that are turned towards
the centre of the chamber are distributed the
letters of the royal name of Coloman (Fig. 13).
From these capitals spring two heavy diagonal ribs
of plain squared stone, underlying a vault which is
almost a dome in construction. From the intersection
of the ribs depends a boss or rosette of a kind not
uncommon in the romanesque buildings of Dalmatia.
ol-
Fig. 13-
The little window in the south side of this chapel
has for a lintel a fragment, set upside down, of a
classic frieze carved with dolphins. The upper part
of the tower is worth studying for the largeness of its
window openings and the hardihood of its construc-
tion. Several pillars of the upper stage have de-
cayed, and have been replaced by others not alto-
gether like the original, though fortunately their
defects are not observable from the ground, and
very few ever see them at a less distance.
X 2
3o8 Zara : S. Maria. [Ch. ly.
Above the aisles of the church is a spacious
triforium, which is returned in the form of a wide
gallery across the west end. In this gallery is the
nuns' choir, which is fitted with handsome stalls of
the same kind as those at the Duomo, though per-
haps rather later in style. They now surround three
sides of the gallery, but have evidently once formed
two simple rows right and left of a choir in the
usual place on the floor of the church, and they have
suffered a good deal by the process of adaptation to
their present position. The scroll-work dividing the
stalls is not all of one style or date, that of the
southern stalls being much slighter than that of the
northern, and the back of the abbess' stall is different
again, being of pronounced renaissance work. The
standard end of her stall is also of that date, and
bears the inscription artificio iohannis corcyrae
M- c-c-c-c- L- XXXV, recording jDossibly the year when
the old choir was dismantled, and the name of the
artist employed in adapting the stalls to their
present place. The renaissance panel to which his
name is attached is sufficient proof that he was not
the artificer of the stalls themselves, which abound
in flowing Gothic traceries, and correspond in the
style of their carving with the stalls at Arbe, which
are dated fifty years earlier.
The window-openings from the triforium to the
church are filled with good wrought -iron grills,
which deserve to be noticed.
Ch. IV.] V.ara : S. Francesco. 309
The Franciscan Convent and Church claim
the honour of having been founded by S. Francis
himself when he visited Zara in 121 2, The church
was dedicated in 1282, but has been extensively
modernized, though it still retains a few traces of
Italian Gothic architecture. In the interior the
only feature of any architectural interest is the
woodwork of the choir stalls, which is of unusually
good design and execution. The stalls are not now
in theii' original condition, nor in their original place.
They are now behind the altar, but according to
Fabianich they were originally in front of it, and
were only moved to their present position in modern
times. These stalls are among the finest we saw in
Dalmatia, and are earlier in date and in a purer
Gothic style than the others. They were made in
I394~5 t)y Giovanni di Borgo San Sepolcro, a
Tuscan settled at Venice, and they cost 456 golden
ducats, of which 200 were bequeathed by Giorgio de
Matafari, a noble Zaratine, to whose executors a
receipt was given for that sum by Fra Benedetto,
the custos of the convent ^ Among the scrolls of
' Fabianich gives the following agreement between the Friars
and their artist : ' Millesimo trentesimo nonagesimo quarto, Indic-
tione ii die vigesima mensis maij. Praesentibus Jacobo q. Petri
Blundi e ladra, et Nutio Pacini de Florentia habit. ladie testibus
et aliis.
' Magister Joannes q. Jacobi de Burgo Sancti Sepulcri, habitator
et civis Venetiarum, luit confes-sus et conteutus jx-nes se intcgra-
liter habuisse et recepisse a Fratre Bcnedicto Custode Fratrnm et
Conventus nionasterii S. Francisci Ordinis Minorum de Jadra
ducatos auri quadringentos quinquaginta sex, in auro puro, et in
ratione f'liori facti et iionduiu cxpcditi et expediendi in dicta
3IO Zara: S. Francesco. [Ch. IV.
pierced foliage which as usual form shades or screens
between stall and stall are introduced figures of
St. George on horseback, St. Francis receiving the
stigmata, and St. Benedict and other saints of the
Franciscan order (Fig. 14).
In a side chapel is a very large picture by Vittore
Carpaccio, representing the church militant and the
church triumphant.
In the sacristy of S. Francesco ai-e preserved
several fine pieces of old church plate and some good
embroideries. There are in all five very good
chalices of various dates and styles, two of which,
with part of a third, are shown in Plate IX.
Near the west door, upside down and serving as a
base to an ' acqua santa,' is a singular romanesque
capital, which must have belonged to a building-
long anterior to the foundation of this convent. I
could learn nothing of its history (Plate I. Fig. 9).
ecclesia S. Francisci ; de quibus idem magister Joannes fecit dicto
Fratri Benedicto finem securitatem et quietationem generalem et
pactum de ulterius non petendo. Et promisit insuper dictus
magister Joannes venire ad dictum laborerium expediendum hinc
ad unum mensem cum dimidio proxime futurum, cum pactis
modis et conditionibus habitis inter ipsas partes hactenus usque in
jDraesentem diem sub poena quarti, &c. &c.
Actum ladrae in Cancelleria inferiori
Ego Florchus de Artico.'
The text of the receijit to the executors of Matafari is also
given in full by Fabianich, Storia dei frati minori in Dalmazia
e Bossina, vol. ii. p. 51.
Also the text of a contract in 1443 between the convent and
Magister Marcus ab Organis de Venetiis for a new organ. The
new organ was to be five feet wide, and the builder was to receive
fifty-six golden ducats and the old organ.
Ch. IV.]
Zara : S. Francesco.
31'
Fig. 14.
3 1 2 Tm^a : S. Simcone. [Ch. iv.
It may be compared with the capitals of the pulpit
of Spalato (vid. Fig. 32, infra), which, though roman-
esque in style, probably date from 1200-1220.
S. SiMEONE. This church was originally the col-
legiate church of S. Stefano, the establishment of
which was suppressed in 1393, and it changed its
name when the ark and relic of St. Simeon were
moved hither in 1625. The church is a simple
building of the early renaissance, pleasing but not
remarkable, and the campanile, which has a fairly
good outline, was built as lately as i 707.
The glory of this church is the great silver gilt
ark, in which lies the body, as the Zaratini believe,
of Simeon, who held the infant Christ in his arms
at the Presentation in the temple. After various
vicissitudes and removals this magnificent piece of
silversmith's work, the largest it is said ^ in the
churches of the Austrian Empire, is now to be seen
above and behind the high altar, supported by two
bronze angels, and reached by a narrow flight of
stairs from each side, so that the faithful who come
to adore the saint may ascend on one side to see the
relic and kiss the shrine, and descend on the other.
This they may be seen doing all day long ; but on
the feast of St. Simeon, October 8th, they come in
enormous numbers, and each pilgrim receives a
' bomhace,' or little tuft of cotton-wool in a paper
envelope, which has been shut up in the ark and
' Eitelberger, p. 157.
Piau LX
^ *.-='^
l.i;^-
^^1'
Ch. IV.] Zara: S. Sinieone. 313
has thereby imbibed virtues which are miraculous in
cases of toothache or earache or other minor ills to
which cotton wool is applicable, and with wliich the
nerves and the imagination have much to do. For
three months beforehand the business of making
these hombctci goes on ; no less than 25,000 were
ready w^hen we were there, filling three large chests,
some in pink envelopes for the Zaratini, the rest in
white for pilgrims from without. We were presented
with a handful as a reminiscence, and thereby some
poor Croat was perhaps consigned to the pangs of
hopeless toothache, if the number happened to fall
short.
The story of the arrival of the relic, which Fondra
its historian in the seventeenth century^ candidly
admits he was the first to put in writing, is tiiis.
Either in 12 13 or 1273 a ship was driven to Zara
by a tempest, having on board a nobleman who
during his stay deposited in the cemetery the body
as he said of his brother, which he was taking home
for burial. The nobleman however died at Zara,
and from his papers it was discovered that the body
was none other than that of Simeon the Just, who
had held Christ in his arms in the Temple. Dreams
and portents were not long wanting to confirm the
discovery, and the body was taken to tlie col-
legiate Church of S. Maria, where, by the expulsion
of devils from demoniacs and other satisfactory
■ Istoria delle iusigne reliquie di San Siini'one, &c. Sciittu da
Loroiizo Fondra. Zai-a, 1855. p. 36.
314 Zara: S. Simeone. [Ch.iv.
miracles of the same kind, it sufficiently asserted its
sanctity \
In 1 37 1 Lewis the Great of Hungary with the
elder and younger Elizabeth, his mother and wife,
visited Zara after his conquest of Dalmatia. The
younger queen, so says the legend, was so desirous of
possessing a piece of the relic that she broke off a
finger and hid it in her bosom, but she instantly lost
her senses and only recovered them on restitution of
her theft. The finger miraculously attached itself
to the body, and the bosom of the queen which had
begun to mortify and breed worms was no less
miraculously healed.
After this we at last touch historical ground.
Elizabeth wrote to certain nobles of Zara to have a
rich ark of silver made to contain the relic : they
entrusted the work to one Francesco d' Antonio di
Milano, a goldsmith of Zara, with whom they entered
into a contract in 1377 ; and the ark was finished in
1380, as we know by the inscription on the back, in
which Francesco di Milano has recorded his own
name as the artificer. The ark is an oblong coffer
with a coped roof and a gable at each end, and is
long enough to contain a human body at full length.
The front is hinged and falls down, disclosing in the
interior behind a glass panel the ghastly and
withered mummy of some poor son of earth, whoever
he may have been. Both within and without the
^ This is uot the only legend relating to the arrival of the relic
in Dalmatia. Eagnina connects it with Eagusa rather than Zara.
Vid. Brunelli, notes to De Diversis, p. 102.
Ch. IV.] Zara: S. Simeone. 315
whole ark is covered with silver plates, embossed
with figure subjects, and chased with diapers and
ornamental borders. The effigy of Simeon lies on the
slope of the roof towards the church, and the rest of
the surface is occupied with various scenes of the
arrival of the relic at Zara, and of the mii'acles it
performed there, the only historical subject being
the Presentation in the temple which occupies the
central panel of the front. Of the other subjects
different persons give different explanations, and
some are generally admitted to be inexplicable.
Fondra finds in one group on the back of the lid
the story of Elizabeth and the rape of the finger ;
his editor believes this to be nothing of the sort, but
finds the story of the stolen finger in the gToup at
the left-hand end of the ark, which Fondra on the
contrary takes to be merely a representation of the
solemn entry of King Lewis and his queen into Zara.
When two such faithful doctors disagTee we may
perhaps be allowed to question whether either of
these pictures represents the story of Elizabeth, and
even whether the origin of the story itself may not
be found in the attempt of some ingenious person to
explain pictures of which the true history had been
lost.
The various compartments are divided by spii^ally
twisted shafts supporting canopies of Italian Gothic
design. The gable ends bear the royal escutcheon of
Hungary impaled with tlie lilies of France, and the
cypher L. R. (vid. Plate X). The embossed figures
which occupy the several compartments are in bold
0
1 6 Zara: S. Simeone. [Ch. iv
relief and eflPective, but like all silversmiths' work
seem ruder and more archaic than coeval work in
wood or stone, owing to the difficulty of getting true
lines and exact forms by means of embossing. A
short examination is enough to shew that the ark is
not in its original state. Some of the cusped arches
are queerly distorted and do not complete themselves,
and the interior has had the back lined with new
plates in renaissance times. That it should have
needed repair is not to be wondered at, for it has
seen strange vicissitudes of fortune. Its original
home was not the church where we now find it, but
the collegiate church of S. Maria to the north of it,
where the ark stood over the high altar supported
by four silver angels. St. Mary herself yielded pre-
cedence to her ancient admonitor, and her church
came to be known as the church of St. Simeon.
This church was demolished to make way for the
new fortifications of 1543 and 1570, a small chapel
only being left standing, where the body remained in
its ancient humble ark of cypress wood, the silver
one being consigned to the safe keeping of the nuns
of S. Marian
In 1572 an attempt was made to raise funds for a
temple worthy of so famous a relic, but money came
in slowly, and in 1600, when the facade was half
finished, the attempt was abandoned. In 1623 more
modest counsels prevailed. Not far from the site of
S. Maria stood the once collegiate church of S.
^ The nuns gave a formal receipt for it which is cited by the
annotator of Fondra's history.
Ch. IV.] Zara : S. Simeoue. 3 1 7
Stefano, and hither it was proposed by Archbishop
Garzadori that the relic should be conveyed. An
outbreak of plague in 1630 awoke in the minds of
the superstitious a recollection of the neglect into
which the cult of St. Simeon had fallen ; the church
was hastily prepared by the addition of a new
chancel, and in 1632 all was ready for the transla-
tion. The silver ark had been found, black and
dirty, in a corner of the nunnery, and was repaired
by Benedetto Libani, a goldsmith, who reduced the
length by four and the width by three fingers, an
alteration which explains the puzzling irregularities
now visible. The translation took place amid public
rejoicings on May 16, 1632, and Simeon has since
then reigned as patron of the city. Other towns
have made inconvenient pretensions to possess parts
of St. Simeon, but it is the special glory of Zara to be
able to shew his entire body, and Fondi'a with re-
lentless logic extinguishes the claims of the rival
churches \
The subject on the southern end of the ark is
especially interesting as shewing the costume of the
Hungarians in the fourteenth century (vid. Plate X).
We see here Lewis himself with his queen and in
the middle of his courtiers, and, from the variety of
expression and feature in which the artist has in-
dulged himself, we may almost believe that he has
attempted actual portraiture of the principal per-
sonages. The king is bareheaded, and wears his
' All arm of St. Simeon was one of the relics with which
Charlemagne endowed his church at Aix-la-Chapelle. Vid. Dan-
dolo, Chron. lib. vii. c. xii. pars 21.
3i8
Zara: S. Simeone.
[Ch. IV.
hair on his shoulders ; his upper Up, which is long
and rather deeply indented, is shaven, and his beard
is cut to a point. He wears a long- waist ed jerkin
and tight hose, and on his collar is a motto, of which
the letters tia ///// tcint can be made out. The
Queen, to whom he is talking, wears an embroidered
underdress and a long cloak reaching to her heels,
and her head is enveloped in a hood or coif turned
up and bordered with fur. The Hungarian nobles
have long hair and flowing beards, and some of them
wear tall pointed caps with plumes of feathers.
Except for the feathers their head-dress corresponds
exactly with that of the Hungarian who is carved
on one of the pillars of the ducal palace at Venice,
who is also represented with long hair and beard and
a conical cap.
On the central panel of the back in raised Lom-
bardic lettering is this inscription : —
SYMEON : HIC IVSTVS • Y
EXVM • DE • VIRGINE • NAT
VM • VLNIS • QVI • TENVIT
HAG • ARCHA • PACE : QVIE
SCIT • HUNGARIE • REGI
NA • POTENS • ILLVSTRI
S : ED • ALTA : EL YZ ABET • I
VNIOR : QVAM • VOTO : CON
TULIT • ALMO • ANNO • MI
LLENO : TRECENO : OCTV
AGENO
tljoc opu0 fecit jfriinci!5cu0 de Sl^ediolano,
Z AR A,
PlcU^X.
cen.timetti .
^ip-\
m/ /
Ark or SSiMeoNE.
AD 1380.
Ch. IV.] Zara : S. Domenico. 319
This ark is not the only rehc of Queen Elizabeth
the younger to be seen in the church of S. Simeone.
In the sacristy is a very beautiful chalice presented
by her to the church, and bearing on the buttons of
the knop and in a medallion on the base the arms of
Hungary impaled with the lilies of France, sur-
mounted by the crowned eagle and waving plumes
that appear as the royal crest in the gable end of
the ark. The arms of Hungary and France impaled
appear also on the ark (Plate X). The latter coat
was derived from the Angevine kings of Naples from
whom Lewis was descended, and to whose kingdom
he pretended as the rightful heir of Carlo Martello ^
Of the other churches in Zara little need be said.
That of S. Domenico has an interesting western door-
way with a square lintel under a pointed tympanum,
on which is a figure of the archangel Michael weigh-
ing souls in a balance and repelling with his spear the
demon who attempts to claw the scale down-. On
one side of this group is St. George, and on the other
a female saint. It dates probably from the latter
part of the fourteenth century. The rest of this
church has been rebuilt in later times.
In another part of the town, between S. Suneone
and the harbour, may be seen the imperfect facade of
^ Vid. tables of Kings of Hungary, sup. p. 193. Also General
History above, pp. 93 and 105.
^ Professor Eitelberger gives an illustration of this door-luad,
Plate xiii. Fig. i.
;20
Zara.
[Ch. IV.
the great church which was to contain the ark and
relic of St. Simeon, The promoters of the scheme got
r"ig- 15-
SO far as to raise the doorway and half the great
columns of the order, and on the lintel we read their
Ch. IV.] Zara. 321
names, which, after all, are only associated with a
failure, for the church rose no higher : —
C. IVLIO CHRYSOGONO FEDERICI F • ET THOMASO
CIVALELLO GREGORII • F • PATRICIIS PROCVRANTIBVS
M. CCCCCC.
In remains of domestic architecture the streets of
Zara are not so rich as those of many other Dalma-
tian towns. Still there are several good windows
and doorways to be found, and not a few gracefully
arcaded cortili. Fig. 15 shews a balconied window
near the Piazza dei Signori, which is interesting as
an example of Dalmatian eclecticism, combining the
trefoiled arch and ogee canopy of Gothic architecture
with the shell ornament the amorini and the swag; of
the Renaissance. One of the prettiest court-yards
is that of an old palace or convent, no one can say
which, near the church of S. Suneone, which is sur-
rounded by two stories of cloisters, the upper one
with a brick parapet in which are introduced some
panels of simple tracery. In the centre is the usual
Venetian well with a coat of arms. Those who say
the building was a palace assign it to the families of
Cernizza and Adobbati, but the coat is not that of
either of these houses. In the jamb of the entrance
doorway is a fragment of a Roman mortuary in-
scription built into the wall upside down.
VOL. I.
CHAPTER V.
NOVIGRAD.
Queen Elizabeth the younger of Hungary forms
so conspicuous a figure in the history of Northern
Dahnatia, and her story is so romantic and tragic,
that a visit to the old castle of Novigrad, where she
came by her mysterious death, follows very appro-
priately the study of her silver ark and enamelled
chalice at Zara.
Novigrad, civitas nova, the Novgorod of the
Russian, may be reached from Zara with a pair of
horses in three and a half hours, by roads that
steadily deteriorate from good to bad, and from bad
to worse, till at last they amount to little more than
a track across a stony desert. The excursion is an
interesting one, and gives a fan* glimpse of the
interior of the country and its Slavonic population.
The castle was a royal residence of Croatian and
Hungarian kings, and a frontier fortress of the Ve-
netians against the Turks, and it plays an important
part in the history of the country on several oc-
casions. But the incident which naturally rises in
the memory in connection with Novigrad is the
tragic death of Queen Elizabeth, which took place
either within or near its walls in 1387.
Ch. v.] Novigrad. 323
Elizabeth was the daughter of Stephen Cotroman
Ban of Bosnia. Her hand was sought by Stephen
Dushan the great Czar of Servia for his son, who
afterwards succeeded him as Ourosh V, and also by
Lewis of Hungary then a childless widower. The
proposals of Stephen Dushan were declined and the
Hungarian alliance j)referred, and the Servian czar
avenged the slight by invading the province of
Bosnia. Cotroman however with his daughter took
refuge in the castle of Bobovaz, and Elizabeth
shortly afterwards became the wife of Lewds. Two
daughters were the issue of then- marriage, Maria
the elder who was crowned ''King' of Hungary on
the death of her father in Sept, 1382, and Hedwig
who married Jagellon Duke of Lithuania, afterwards
King of Poland under the title of Ladislaus V.
For two years Elizabeth, as guardian of the youthful
Maria then espoused to Sigismund of Luxembourg,
reigned in peace, but discontent with female gov-
ernment, and jealousy of the power of the Palatine
Nicolas Ban of Gara, provoked a conspiracy, the
object of which was to transfer the crown to
Charles IH, King of Naples, who before the bii^th
of Maria had been destined by Lewis as his suc-
cessor ^ Charles, who had secured his possession of
the throne of Naples by the murder of Giovanna in
1382, landed at Segna and penetrated through
Croatia to Buda, where he was crowned King of
Hungary in 1385. The two queens were kept in an
honourable captivity ; few of the Hungarian nobility
' See above, General Hifctory, p. 124.
Y 2
324 Novigrad. [Ch. v.
remained faithful to them except the Palatine
Nicolas; the recent fate of Giovanna was fresh in
their memory, and they were obliged to feign com-
pliance and even to attend the coronation festivities.
Under the disguise of this submission however they
harboured thoughts of revenge, and when Nicolas
the Ban of Gara suggested the assassination of
Charles as the only remedy for their misfortunes
they eagerly entered into the projects On Jan. i,
1386, the trap was laid, and Charles was invited
into then* rooms in the castle of Buda to listen to
proposals from Sigismund, who they pretended was
ready to follow their example and surrender his
claims to the kingdom on condition that Maria
should be released. While he was talking with
them the Ban Nicolas entered with one Blasius
Forgac-, a ' jyersona intrepida,' who cut the king
down with a Hungarian SAVord. The approaches of
the castle were guarded by partisans of Maria, and
the populace were soon shouting for King Maria as
lustily as they had a short time before shouted for
King Charles.
The dying king was carried to the castle of Visse-
grad, where poison is supposed to have completed
what the sword had begun. But the party who
had supported him determined to avenge his death,
and as the two queens were on theu^ way through
^ ' Queste parole furono avidamente pigliate dalle due Regine
e ad un tempo risposero che non desideravano cosa al mondo piu
di questa.' Giannone, xxiv. 2.
2 So Lucio. Giannone calls him Brasio Torgas.
Ch, v.] Novigrad. 325
Croatia towards Dalmatia they were met by the
Ban John Horvad and Giovanni PaUsna the
Prior of Vi-ana^ who overpowered their escort after
a desperate struggle, in which the Count Palatine
Nicolas, and Blasius Forgac were slain, and carried
them captive to the castle of Novigrad. Here
Elizabeth met her death, but whether by the sword,
or by drowning in the Bozota, or as some say from
mere grief and desj^air, remains wrapped in im-
penetrable mystery. Maria was detained by her
captors at Novigrad, whence she owed her escape to
the interference of the Venetian government, as has
been related in the general history-.
The first part of the route from Zara to Novigrad
lies along the great post road that traverses the
whole province as far as Spalato, with branches to
Knin Sign and the passes over the mountains into
Bosnia. The first village is Zemonico, where are the
remains of a fortified cavalry station, built by the
Venetians as an outpost against the Turks. In
most parts of Dalmatia there is but little scope for
the movements of cavalry, but here there is a con-
siderable plain called Grohnica, where according to
one account the Tartars were defeated in the thir-
teenth century^.
The next village is Smilcich, perhaps the 2)lace
where Lewis of Hungary encamped in 1346 on his
way to attempt to raise the siege of Zara, and where
' Lucio, V. ii. p. 253, ' prope Diacum.'
Vid. sup. Chapter i. p. 128.
Vid. General History iii Chaiittr i. pp. 69-70.
:>
26 Novigrad. [Ch. v.
he received the envoys of the citizens^. It has a
modern church standing on an open green, and to
our surprise there was a very decent-looking inn.
From Smilcich the main road runs on to Karin, the
Koman Corinium, where I beheve there are some
ruins to be seen, and thence over the hills to Obbro-
vazzo. We however left the high road, and struck
into a very rough country track across rock and bog,
which threatened to jolt our frail carriage to pieces,
and tried the endurance of our little scrambling
steeds to the utmost. It was a lovely day ; the
distant Velebic mountains wore then- tenderest hues,
and the air was full of the scent of aromatic plants
that seem to flourish best where the ground is most
rocky and sterile. There were multitudes of birds
resembling a lai'ge lark or thrush, which were very
bold, waiting till the carriage was close to them
before taking to the wing, from which we inferred
that the Sunday ' chasse ' of the Gaul and Italian is
not an institution among the Croats.
Before reaching Novigrad we met a substantial
yeoman of that place to whom we had an intro-
duction, which was to facilitate our plans and
ensure us a good reception. He had married a girl
from Oltre on the island of Ugliano, though not in
the usual manner of the contadini, with whom it is
still the custom for the lover to carry off the girl
from her home, and bring her back after a few days
^ Obs. ladr. lib. ii. c. ix. ' in confinio Semelnici districtus ladrae
distans ab urbe fere per spacium septem milliarium castra metatus
est.'
Ch. v.]
Novigrad.
127
to be formally married ^ The j^erson we now en-
countered was however of a better condition than
the ordinary peasants, and his wedding had been
conducted in a more regular fashion. We were
much impressed by his easy graceful carriage and
polished manners ; the Dalmatian type of humanity
is a very noble one, and the national costume is well
calculated to set it off.
At last, on otu- right, emerging from a hollow
Fi-. 16.
ravine we saw the castle of Novigrad, a huge mass
of yellow wall, so splintered and shapeless that it
might almost have been a natural cliff (Fig. 16)
It was perched on a promontory of rock surrounded
by ravines which gradually disclosed themselves as
we approached, and revealed in their depths the sea
of Novigrad encircling the castle rock on three sides,
and the little town of Novigrad lying far below us
on the slopes of the hill, within its old walls, which
' Vid. sup. Chapter i. pp. 174, 183
328 Novigrad. [Ch. v.
stretch up the hill side to meet the fortress above.
A long descending zigzag brought us to the water's
edge, and rounding the end of the haven we soon
reached the level quay of the town on the further
side.
The castle covers a good deal of ground, but
shews no evidences of taste or splendour, and must
always have been much more castle than palace. It is
not a castle of the same kind as Conway Carnarvon or
Carew, built first indeed for defence, but secondarily
for royal state or princely magnificence ; in its ruin
at all events it reminds one more of the robber
castles on the Rhine and the Danube than of any
more civilized home of chivalry. It can only be
reached by a rough path up the rocky hill-side,
through narrow gateways, and finally by two rude
flights of external stands which lead to the massive
keep that occupies the summit of the hill. The
entrance is at the head of the second flight, by a
small doorway, close to which an iron ball from a
Turkish cannon still lies imbedded in the solid
masonry. The innermost enclosure of the keep is
spacious, but the buildings are so dilapidated that
little can be made of them. The natives jDoint out
the site of the little chapel, and there are many
vaults below the level platform of the area, some of
which have fallen in, but exploration was dangerous
on account of the swarms of angry bees that infested
the ruins. We were however rewarded for our
climb by the magnificent view ; to the right were
the bare crags of the Velebic mountains, and in
Cii. v.] Novigrad. 329
front the blue sea. of Novigrad famed for its tunny
fishery ; while beyond was the ojDen sea with its
islands, and the channel by which, as our guide
sapiently observed, you can go from Novigrad to all
parts of Europe.
Returning to the town we put ourselves under
the guidance of the Parroco, or Cure, the personage
in whom when wandering in remote parts of the
country the traveller will generally find a good
friend and an intelligent cicerone, and who is often
the only person through whom he will learn what
there is to see, and obtain leave to see it. Entering
the little town by a gate over which is the date
1593 and the name of the reigning Doge Pasquale
Cicogna, we threaded the uneven and uTegular
alleys that lead to the church, from whose western
bellcot ' mezzo giorno ' was being jingled forth by
men standing on the roof and striking the clappers
aofainst the bells with their hands. The church is
not of any antiquity or interest, but possesses a
^ pianeta' or chasuble of cut and embroidered velvet,
which, like everything else in the neighbourhood, is
said to have been a present from Queen Elizabeth.
The style of the design with its cornucopias is not
consistent with so early a date, but some small
pieces of embroidery which are mserted may have
belonged to an older vestment. There is also a
silver cross, chiefly of eighteenth century work,
but with evangelistic emblems apparently of the
twelfth.
Outside the walls is the Church of S. Caterina,
33^ Novigrad. [Ch. v.
now used as a cemetery chapel, which is believed to
occupy the site of a Benedictine abbey suppressed
in the year 976^ The chancel is a low barrel
vaulted structure, possibly part of the Benedictine
church, and in the walls of the more modern nave
are imbedded some fragments of interlacing band-
work with birds and animals (vid. Plate I. Fig. 3)
that belonged to the conventual buildings, and are
important as examples of ninth or at the latest tenth
century work, supposing the date of the suppression
of the abbey to be correctly fixed.
The locanda of Novigrad where we were to lunch
was certainly the roughest we encountered in Dal-
matia. We entered from the street by a large
doorway into a dark rambling place, which had
apparently been used as a slaughter-house, and
where several men were stiU seated on the ground
busily engaged in scraping the inside of some gory
sheep-skins. Across the bloody puddles of the floor
we picked our way to a rude ladder staircase which
led to rather better quarters above, though even
here one side of the room was formed with nothing
better than rough planks through which in winter
the Bora must make rude entrance. It is however
fair to say the dinner exceeded our expectations.
We had some trouble in getting our driver, who
was a convivial soul, and was enjoying himself after
his fashion lower down the village, to put his horses
to and start homewards, and it required all the au-
thority of the Parroco to get him under weigh.
' Bianchi, Zara Cristiana, vol. ii. p. 294.
Ch. v.] Novigrad. 331
But we had our revenge, for we stopped him at the
top of the hill that I might finish my sketch, and
consequently we were passed by another carriage,
bound like ourselves for Zara. Our driver exclaimed
that he felt this as if he had received a deadly
wound, and for the rest of the way we had a regular
race home until our rival was repassed, and our
wounded honour healed.
CHAPTER VI.
San Michele d' Ugliano.
Uljan or Ugliano is a long narrow island op-
posite Zara, one of those craggy parallel ridges, the
crests of partly submerged mountains, that lie often
two or three deep with narrow channels between
them along the sea coast of northern Dalmatia.
Ugliano though some twenty miles in length is for
the most part a bare mile in width, and at its
widest not three miles from shore to shore. Its
lofty backbone is notched and serrated with a suc-
cession of peaks rising to the height of from 900 to
1000 feet, one of which is crowned with a castle,
the most conspicuous object in the neighbourhood of
Zara\ The jjopulation of the island amounts to
5694, and there are several villages and country
houses whither the well-to-do Zaratini resort for
their ' villeggiatu7'a,' which is as regular an insti-
tution in Dalmatia as in Italy. To one of these
houses we were invited by our kind friend Signor
Simeone Salghetti Drioli of Zara, who has a Ve-
netian villa there dating from the eighteenth
' Monte Grande, tlie highest peak, is 1000 feet high, and
Monte S. Michele, on which the castle is placed, 950 feet.
Cii. Yl.] San Michele cC Ugliano. -liZli
century \ with a shady garden and trellised alleys,
close to the little port of Oltre db^ectly opposite
Zara.
The gi^eat object of the visit was the castle of
S. Michele, for which we started under a broiling sun
with a boatman carrying a basket of grapes and a
bottle of water flavoured with aniseed for refresh-
ment by the way. Dalmatia is not a country for
pedestrians, and Ugliano certainly can boast nothing
like our English country walks. The whole island
is under cultivation and entirely enclosed by dry
stone walls between which you walk tortuously
along the roughest imaginable paths, floundering
over boulders of rock and sharp pebbles that cut
your boots to pieces.
The distance to the castle was greater than we
expected, for the hill on which it stands does not
rise from the shore as it seems to do from Zara.
Ugliano in fact consists of two long parallel ridges
enclosing a valley betw^een them, and the castle
is on the farther of the two. From this valley
a steep climb of a quarter of an hour brings you
to the castle gate, curiously contrived on the land-
ward side — that I mean towards Zara — within a
recess between bastions. The door was locked, but
my knocking roused a furious barking of dogs
within, and brought a wild shaggy peasant who had
^ Farlati speaks of the villas on the island of Ugliano ; ' Porro
dispersae in aestivos maxime autumnalesque secessus Patritiorum
Jadrensium villae frequentissimae sunt, opere eleganti situque
peraraoeno.'
334 -^^^^ Michele d' Ugliano. [Ch. vi.
some trouble to keep his curs in order. Once inside,
you rise by a narrow path between walls to the
level, or rather unlevel, of the castle-yard. The
curtain walls and bastions still surround it, and
from the terrace walk on the top of the wall there
are fine views of Zara, with the Velebic mountains
far away in the background, Nona on an arm of
the sea northwards, and the islands of Pago Pun-
tadura and others, while towards the west you look
over a series of long narrow ridges with intervening
channels to the open Adriatic, beyond which but for
an envious haze we ought to have seen the great
rock of Ancona, on which stands the ancient church
of S. Ciriaco,
Low buildings with lean-to roofs against the
outer walls once surrounded the enclosure, but the
roofs are now gone. The great square keep stands
close to the gate, a mere hollow shell, but still
preserving the stone vault at top like the great don-
jon at Pembroke, and a vault below which is reached
by a hole in the floor. In the centre of the castle-
yard on a natural table of rock stands a desolate-
looking church, dismantled but not ruinous, which is
still served once or twice in the year by the village
priest from below, when the peasants climb the hill
in great numbers. The altar retains its shabby
altar-piece, mouldy and stained by damp and sea-air,
but all the other fittings are gone. The roof is a
plain waggon stone vault, the east end has a plain
apse, and there are a few bits of Venetian Gothic
detail.
Ch. VI.] San Michele d' Ugliano. 335
The church belonged to a Benedictine abbey
which was founded on this inhospitable spot in the
tenth or eleventh century. The original castle was
no doubt that built opposite Zara by Rainieri Dan-
dolo, son of the Doge Enrico Dandolo, in 1203, after
the crusaders had sailed from Zara, in order to
check what the Venetians called the piracies of the
expatriated Zaratini. The Zaratini, aided by the
gold of the archbishop of Spalato, subsidised ten
galleys of Gaieta which happened to be in Dalmatia,
and with their help took and destroyed the castle,
and put the Venetian garrison to the swords It is
uncertain when the fortress was rebuilt, but a castle
certainly existed here in 1346 when the Venetians
took it ^ during their siege of Zara, and garrisoned it
with a captain and 100 Venetian soldiers, who w^ere
afterwards reduced to 50. In 1350 the Venetians
dismantled the castle and destroyed the church.
It is probable that the offence given to the abbot of
S. Michele by the demolition of his church, and the
non-fulfilment by the Venetians of their promise to
build him another in the plain, was the cause of his
betrayal of Zara to the Hungarians in 1357, if the
story of his treachery is true^. Under the Hun-
garians, between 1366 and 1373, the castle was
restored and the church rebuilt, no doubt in the
form in which we now see it. The abbey came to
an end between 1453 and 1468. Dominicans were
^ Thorn. Archid. c. xxv.
'^ Obsid. ladrens. 1. ii. c. xvii.
^ Vid. su]). General History, p. 112.
33^ San Michele (T Ugliano. [Ch. VI.
established there m 1570, and the convent was
finally suppressed m 1858^
As we descended the rocky path to Oltre our ears
were greeted by the piping of a strange musical
instrument, and on turning a corner we came on a
scene that took one back to the shepherds of the
Eclogues, — a herdsman followed by his flock, and
piping to them on a double flute. The ' fistula '
however — it still keeps its classic name — is not
divided into two distinct pipes as we see it on
ancient gems, and as Raphael has drawn it in the
cartoon of Paul and Barnabas at Lystra, but is
carved out of a single piece of wood, solid at the
double mouthpiece and forked below 2. The music of
which it is capable consists of sustained passages in
a minor key with many roulades and turns, and the
effect of the simple concords of two notes, when the
performer is as skilful as our Meliboeus, is pretty and
plaintive.
Not less Virgilian — not to say Adamitic, as our
host pronounced them — are the ploughs of Dalmatia
(Fig. 1 7). They are of two kinds, ' the oralo,' for use
as a labourer expressed it on rochs and stony
places, for in Dalmatia they talk of rock much as in
England we talk of a clay-soil, and the ' j)lugo ' for
better and deeper soil. The former is nothing but
two pieces of wood fixed at an angle with an iron
* Vid. Article in Annuario Dalmatico, 1884, by Prof. Benevenia,
' II monte cli S. Michele d' Ugliano.'
^ Mr. Arthur Evans gives an illustration of one of these double
pipes, ' Through Bosnia,' (fee, p. 22.
Ch. VI.]
San Michele d^ Ugliano.
point to one of them ; the latter is somewhat more
elaborate, and has an iron coulter and a wooden mould
board. The steel share of the latter costs five, and
the w^iole plugo ten or twelve florins ; it lasts about
three years. Of these two Illyric .names the first
Fig. i:
seems akin to the Latin word, and the second is
curiously like our own. The peasants say these
rude implements suit their rocky soil best, and it is
quite possible that a less primitive article would not
stand the rough shock of the stones of Dalmatia so
well.
VOL. I.
CHAPTER VII.
Nona. History.
Nona, in lUyric Nin, the Aenona civltas of
Pliny ^ and a place of consequence anciently, whence
came, according to tradition, the handsome Roman
arch which now forms the inner face of the sea-gate
at Zara, was less fortunate than the other maritime
towns of Dalmatia, and after it had once fallen into
the hands of the Croat immigrants it never again
recovered its position as a Latin city.
Constantino Porphyrogenitus in the tenth century
mentions NoVa as one of the towns inhabited by the
Christianized Croats. It was the chief toT^n of a
zupy, the seat of one of the eleven Croatian zupans,
and occasionally the residence of the Croatian king.
Peter Cresimir, king of Dalmatia and Croatia, dates
an edict in 1069, 'in nostro Nonensi Cenaculo resi-
dens una cum nostris Jupanis, comitibus, atque
Banis, Capellanis etiam nostrae regalis aulae^'.' By
this king part of the island of Pago^ was attached
to the see of Nona, whose bishops in consequence of
privileges granted by Mucimir in the ninth century
^ Plin. Nat. Hist. 1. iii. c. xxi.
^ Cited by Lucio, de Regn. Dalm. et Croat, ii. viii. p. 77.
' Farlati, vol. i. part ii. c. vii, also Lutio.
Ch. VII.] Nona: History. 339
had at that time all Croatia for their diocese, and
who in the fourteenth century enjoyed the prero-
gative of appointing the zupan\ It was to Nona
as to a Croatian town that the fugitive Zaratini fled
for security on the second capture of then- city by
the Venetians in 1243, and the names of eleven
citizens of Nona attached to a treaty with Arbe in
1284 are all thoroughly Slavonic. From the docu-
ment in question the people of Nona seem to have
fallen into the piratical habits common to the mari-
tmie Slavs. Marco Michaeli Count of Arbe had
hanged one Dobrissa a ph^ate of Nona, and in re-
prisal the men of Nona had captured a ship of Arbe
and carried it to Nona ; whereupon the count of
Arbe had invaded their territory, and one Cernote an
Arbesan noble had been slain. The feud was ap-
peased by the mediation of the Venetians ; Dob-
rissa was pronounced properly hanged, and Cernote
killed in fair fight ; the men of Nona were to pay
for the ship they had taken, and the Arbesani for
the damage they had done on the territory of Nona,
and no further question was to be raised by either
side. It is interesting to notice that while the
names of those who signed the treaty on behalf of
Nona are Slavonic, those of the Arbesan signatories
are nearly all Italian 2.
In 1327 Nona, like Trail and Sebenico, was driven
by the tyranny of the counts of Bribir to throw her-
self on the protection of Venice, preserving like those
^ Luc. vi. I, p. 271.
- I'or this treaty see Lucio, iv. ix. p. 184.
Z 2
340 Nona. [Ch.yit.
towns her ancient constitution and privileges. The
Venetians garrisoned the place, and were besieged
there by the Hungarian Ban on his way to attack
Zara in 1357. The Venetians in vain endeavoured to
raise the siege, and after the inhabitants had been
reduced to eat their horses they were obliged to sur-
render to the Hungarians. Hither in June 1387
came Queen Maria, the daughter of Lewis and
bride of Sigismond, on her release from captivity
at Novigrad, and after a few days she sailed hence
in the Venetian galleys for Segna, on hei- way to
join her bridegroom.
In 1389 Nona was taken by Tvartko I, king of
Bosnia, and about 1420 it passed, like the rest of
Dalmatia, into the hands of the Venetians. It was
abandoned and partly destroyed by them in 1 5 7 1 ,
and again in 1646, to prevent its falling into the
hands of the Turks. On the latter occasion the
town was burned, by the order of the Senate, after
the departure of the count and the bishop, and
since that day it has never recovered its foi-mer
importance.
The excursion to Nona is the easiest and perhaps
the most interesting that can be made from Zara.
Nona is the first town within the limits of Dalmatia
whose history connects it almost exclusively with
Slavonic as distinct from Italian influences. Except
for a short time in the fourteenth century it was a
Croatian town from the eighth to the fifteenth
century, and when at last it fell under the direct
Ch. vil] Nona. 341
government of Venice it was hurriedly abandoned
and burned. Here then I hoped to see what the
Slavs of Dalmatia could produce in the way of
architecture when left to themselves, and it must be
confessed that they have no very great triumphs to
record, although from an antiquarian point of view
their work is not without interest. The oldest
buildings remaining there are based on Byzantine
art rather than that of western Europe, although
they are so plain and of such humble dimensions
that they scarcely amount to works of art at
all. To this class belong the domed churches of
S. Nicolo and S. Croce : but even the later buildings
still cling to the round arch, the shallow tympanum,
and the narrow windows of Byzantine architecture,
although they shew in one instance perhaps a trace
of Hungarian influence, and one church has the
singularity of a square end, like our English
chancels. Unfortunately so few of the buildings
remain in anything like a perfect state that less
is to be learned from them than a first view
seems to promise.
Zara being on a peninsula there is but one way
out, and for some distance our road followed that by
which we had gone to Novigrad. On leaving this
and turning northwards we traversed a high down-
like countiy, stony and bare except for the short
scrubby bushes that were dotted over it, and com-
manding lovely views of the sea on one side and the
Velebic mountains on the other. A drive of an hour
and a half brought uh within sight of Nona, situated
342 Nona : S. Nicolb. [Ch. vii.
low down to our right, on the margin of what
appeared to be an inland lake but was really an arm
of the sea, connected, though invisibly to us, by
intricate channels with the open sea on our left.
But before reaching Nona we stayed to examine a
strange-looking ruin that crowned a lofty barrow,
evidently of artificial formation, which may perhaps
mark the sepulchre of some Croat chieftain. The
ruin is that of a small cruciform church dedicated to
St. Nicholas, but it has the air rather of a fortress
than of an ecclesiastical building, and the wide
breaches that now gape in its walls may perhaps be
wounds received when it was on some occasion
turned to military uses. In jDlan (vid. Plate XI) it
is a Greek cross, all four arms being equal in length,
but the choir and transepts are apsidal and covered
with semidomes, while the nave is square in plan,
though it too is roofed with a semidome, carried on
the conch-shaped squinches in the angles of the
square which abound in these early Dalmatian
churches. The central space is covered by a dome,
which however has transverse ribs laid on its under
side, springing from fragments of classic moulding
built in to serve as consoles. The west door, which
is only 5 ft. Z\ in. high, has a square lintel under a
semicuxular arch, with a slightly sunk tympanum,
and with the head jambs and sill curiously joggled
together, in a manner not uncommon in the early
work of this district (vid. Plate XI). Externally
the dome is concealed by an octagonal tower, bat-
tlemented at top, which it is difficult to believe not
J'iaU II.
Ch. VII.] No7ia. 343
to have been intended for defence. The dimensions
of the building are strangely minute ; the span of
each arm is seven feet, the nave is four feet five
inches long, and the total internal length only
nineteen feet six inches. Fragments of antique classic
work, moulded and fluted, occur in the walls, and on
the floor lies a cylindrical stone hollowed on the top,
which might be part of a column but that it tapers
too abruptly. There is so little to fix the date of
the building that it might be attributed with almost
equal probability to any time from the ninth to the
twelfth century ; but the cross-ribs that underlie
the dome seem to me to point rather to the later
than the earlier part of that extended period.
From S. Nicolb it is less than a mile to Nona,
which we found surrounded by shallow water and
marshy pools amply sufiicient to account for the
feverish reputation it enjoys. A more desolate and
deplorable looking place never represented the fallen
greatness of an ancient Roman city. The town
walls and gates are ruined and dilapidated and in
places quite broken down, and they reflect them-
selves sadly in the unwholesome pools that wash
their base. The glimpses of the interior which
these gaps afford reveal more ruins than houses, and
the ravens that croaked dismally over our heads as
we approached seemed to read a commentary on the
picture of misery and decay that lay before us.
Crossing the water by a causeway and entering the
town we found ourselves in an irregular straggling
street with scattered houses and many ruins ; few of
344 Nona : the Ditomo. [Ch. vil.
the inhabitants were visible, and most of those whom
we saw had that ' faccia smorta,' that deathly com-
plexion and enfeebled frame that tells of malaria.
In the centre of the town we drew up in front of
' the shop,' where as in an English village everything
from clothing to food, candles, and soap, may be had
within the limits of a choice, somewhat narrow
perhaps, but wide enough for the modest demands
of the villager. What little activity exists at Nona
is centred in this establishment, and it is the only
place where the few strangers who come here can
obtain any accommodation, for there is no inn or
caffe even of the humblest kind. Here we left our
wraps and other encumbrances, and set out on our
round of exploration under the guidance of the
courteous Parroco, being anxious to lose no time nor
to run any risk of delaying our departure till the
dangerous evening mists arose charged with their
fatal malaria ^
The Duomo. Of the sixteen churches which
Nona is said to have once possessed seven still exist
entire or in ruins, though only one is in a condition
for use. This is the Duomo, dedicated to S. Anselmo,
the cathedral church of Nona during the middle ages
and until the series of bishops came to an end in
1804. The actual fabric though on old foundations
dates only from the last century and is of no interest.
Adjoining and opening from it is another and older
* Nona was noted for its unhealthiness during the middle ages.
Farlati mentions that the bisliop was allowed to live in Zara
during the unwholesome season. Illyr. Sacr. torn. iv. p. 204.
Ch. VII.] Nojia : Ike DiW7uo. 345
church dedicated to S. Ambrogio. The nave of this
is square and perfectly plain, the chancel is cross-
vaulted and has on the keystone the arms of Bishop
DiPHNicA, whose tombstone stands against the wall :
obiit MDXXX. The dedication of this church is now
changed from S. Ambrogio to the Madonna, to com-
memorate a local legend resembling that of la Salette.
The treasury of the duomo, which consists of a
case over the high altar, contains many objects of
considerable interest, of which I noted the following :
(i) Two silver gilt cases containing the feet of
S. Anselmo, a saint whom legend reports to have
been one of the seventy disciples of Christ, and the
first bishop of Nona.
{2) Two coffanetti of silver gilt containing the
heads of S. Anselmo and his sister S. Marcella. On
the sides are figures under trefoiled arches supported
by twisted columns, above which is a slightly em-
bossed band representing a chase of stags and hares,
with a huntsman with his horn, &c. Here, as in
the case of similar subjects which occur in sculpture
at Trail, it is to be observed that staofs are unknown
in Dalmatia, from which it has been inferred that
the artist was a foreigner, possibly, as at Zara, a
Milanese. This hunting subject is to be found on
both coffanetti, and on the lid of both are the evan-
gelistic emblems embossed from the same matrices.
The style is that of the fifteenth century, or at the
earliest of the end of the fourteenth.
(3) A pretty little cross standing on a plaque on
which are the remains of a fringe of bushes, and
34^ Nona : the Dtiomo. [Ch, vit.
statuettes of the Vii'gin, St. John, and St. Mary
Magdalen. The base is very graceful.
(4) A cross over the altar inscribed in Lombardic
letters STe^F/TlVS TfGCIT. The crucifixion in
front, St. Martin as a bishop on the back.
(5) A chalice given by Bishop Diphnica (died 1 5 30),
like one I afterwards drew at Curzola.
All the saints revered at Nona, said the Parroco
with modest pride, are of the first century.
Behind the duomo lies an antique Boman capital,
supposed to have belonged to the church and convent
of the nuns of S. Marcella, destroyed by the Turks
about 1500.
In front of ' the shop ' stands a row of capitals,
also attributed to this church, which, to judge from
their dimensions and style, must have been a build-
ing of stately proportions and good architecture \
They seem to belong to the twelfth or thirteenth
century at the latest. The palaces of the bishop
and the Venetian count are in ruins, and the lion of
S. Mark stands degraded on the ground. A large
stone, which once formed the lintel over the door of
the count's palace, bears on the dexter end the
initials TE • M and the date April, 1 5 1 1 , and at the
sinister end 10 * M • M Janui 1 5 1 4 ; an arm out-
stretched from either side, and hands clasped in the
middle open a wide field for conjecture as to the
happy incident intended to be commemorated. The
scutcheon seems to be that of the Venetian family of
Molino.
1 Vid. Plate I. Fig. 4.
Ch. VII.] Nona: S. Crocc. 347
S. Croce. From the modern cluomo we went to
the ancient and half-ruined church of S. Croce, the
cathedral in Byzantine times (Plate XI). This, like S.
Nicoli), is of the tiniest dimensions, with a nave eight
feet seven inches wide and a total interior length of
twenty-five feet : probably as small a cathedral as
any in Christendom. The plan forms a Greek cross
with all the arms externally square, but the eastern
arm is round internally, and the rest are brought to a
semicircular plan above by conchiform squinches as
at S. Barbara Traii, and S. Nicolo here, to enable
them to be covered by semidomes. Each transept
has an apse applied to the east side which is vaulted
and roofed in the same solid masonry, like our Pem-
brokeshire churches at Gumfreston and elsewhere,
the slates being bedded on the back of the vault.
The chancel is ornamented with three blank arches
on the outside, and was formerly lighted by a little
window in the east wall. The crossing has squinches
in the angles of the square, which carry a conical
dome constructed in the rudest way, the plan at the
springing being by no means a true circle. The
external casing of the dome is carried up as a tower
which is only roughly cylindrical, being little better
than a square with rounded angles ; and it is orna-
mented with blank arches like the apse, and crowned
by a low pyramidal roof.
The church stands north and south, the chancel
being towards the south ; and the quasi west end
has a gable surmounted by a bellcot. above three
blank windows with a doorway below tliem.
34^ Nona: S. Antonio, S. Ambrogio. [Ch. vil.
The most interesting feature of the building is
this doorway, a square-headed opening, with a lintel
of a single stone which projects with a bevelled face
like the side of a sarcophagus. This lintel is richly
carved with interlacing knots and scrolls of a Byzan-
tine character, from the design of which Eitelberger
infers that the building dates from the ninth century
(Plate I. Fig. 2). But the great interest of the door-
way consists in the inscription deeply incised in
irregular lettering on the soffit of the lintel, in which
may be made out the name of the zupan Godeslav.
Eitelberger, who gives the inscription after Camesina\
observes that the letters are Latin, and not Glago-
litic nor Cyrillic, and that the language also appears
to be Latin, but he does not venture on an interpre-
tation. I measured and sketched this interesting
little church, which, like the other outside the town,
is valuable as an example of genuine Slavonic archi-
tecture. The only details inside are a rude impost
at the springing of the arch, and a roughly-formed
stoup for holy water.
S. Antonio is another ruined church, with a short
quadrangular nave and apse at the east end, pro-
perly orientated.
The Church of S. Ambrogio (Fig. 18) once be-
longed to Benedictine monks. It is also in ruins,
and about, they said, to be pulled down by leave of
the government, who have sold the materials for
thirty florins to the peasants of Oltre on the island
^ Eitelberger, Dalmatien, p. 169. His illustration, which I
have copied, is apparently taken from Caniesina.
("H. Yir.]
No7ia : S. A mbrozio.
;49
of Ugliano, to be used in building a new church there.
This is a very great pity, for the church is an ex-
S AMBRosro ivftoNA-,^
Fig. 1 8.
tremely interesting building, and though partly
roofless, is in other respects quite perfect. The plan
consists of a nave and chancel, lighted by small single
lights, round-headed
and splayed equally
inside and out\ the
lights which are mere
slits of a few inches
wide being in the
middle of the wall
(Fig. 19). Fig. 19.
The west door is round-headed and has a very
singular cross-shaped window above it. The chancel
opens to the nave with a semicircular arch devoid of
' Compare Ti-aii.
350 Nona: S. Michele. [Ch. vil.
any moulding or impost, and ends, English fashion,
with a square end. The choir retains its barrel
vault which is very slightly pointed in section, and
the nave, which is now open to the sky, has had a
round barrel vault strengthened with transverse flat
ribs springing from flat wall piers with plain imposts.
In the east wall, now ruined, are traces of a group of
two or perhaps three lancets like those in the side
walls. The exterior of this square end, when perfect,
with its gable and triplet of narrow windows, must
have had the look of a Norman church in some
Sussex village. The church dates probably from the
thirteenth century. The Benedictines departed in
1 440, but the ' ahhazia commeridataria ' remained
till the time of Napoleon.
Close behind this church, which I hope may yet
be saved by the intervention of the Conservator at
Zara, who I found had not heard of its intended
destruction ^, is one of the old gates of the Venetian
walls, opening landwards to a' causeway across the
dismal marshes that hem in the town. St. Mark's
lion guards the entrance, which has been flanked by
two bastions, only one of which remains.
S. Michele stands on the site of the Roman arena,
where the Parroco has dug and found walls, columns,
and seats. The church has a nave once roofed with
wood but now open to the sky, a chancel with a
' Our visit to Nona was in 1884. On enquiry at Zara in 1885,
I was glad to find the government had ordered the contract for
the destruction of the church to be rescinded on the rejiresentation
of the Conservator.
ch. VII.] Nona. 351
pointed barrel vault, and small side windows splayed
inside and outside. Those in the side walls are
round-headed, that in the east wall by a strange
freak is triangular-headed. There are plain square
doors, that to the west with an arched tympanum
slightly sunk, and jambs archivolt and lintel flush
with the wall face.
Of Roman ^nona scarcely any traces remain
above ground. I have mentioned one antique capital
lying in the street, and there are a few inscriptions
built into the walls of a shabby cottage, but I saw
no other remains of classical times. Eitelberger^
says that numerous inscriptions have been found at
Nona which may now be seen at Udine ; but at Nona
one is told that what were taken away were not
inscriptions but statues ; and Fortis^, writing in the
last century, mentions that he saw at the house of
Dr. Antonio Danieli, a physician who entertained
him at Zara, four valuable colossal statues of marble
which his host had brought at his own expense from
the ruins of Nona^.
Our party w^as joined by an extremely lively young
gentleman, secretary to the ' Comune,' a Ragusan by
birth, but settled here long enough to have become
a martyr to the ague. But though, as he said, a
» P. 169.
' Viaggio in Dalmazia.
' Mons. Bianchi, Zara Cristiana, ii. p. 425, gives a catalogue of
the marbles in the Danieli collection, which were sold in 1840 by
Dott. Casimiro de Pellegrini Danieli to Count Cernazai of Udine.
In this collection of 300 pieces were included some found at or
near Zara.
352 Nona. [Ch. yii.
constant sufferer from fever, his spirits had suffered
no depression ; a merrier party than ours never sat
down to hard-boiled eggs and German sausage, and
if fever can be kept away by laughter we certainly
ran no risk of catching it.
CHAPTER VIII.
Vrana.
History of Vrana. S. Cassiano. Torrette. Castle and Lake of
Vrana. Turkish Han. Ali-beg. Luciano di Laurana. Podgraje
the ancient Assesia.
The castle of Vrana plays a large part in Dal-
matian history. There was originally a Benedictine
abbey of S. Gregorio on its site, which was granted
to the Apostolic See in the time of Gregory VII.
by Zuonimir king of Croatia, together with all
its treasures, church plate, gospels in bindings
of silver, and other goods and chattels, as a ' hos-
pitium ' for the Papal legates ^. How Vrana re-
turned to the possession of the king does not appear
from any authority to which I have had access ;
but in 1 138 it was granted by Bela II, 'the blind,'
to the Knights Templar, who were subject to the
jurisdiction of the Grand Master of Hungary. The
Templars l:)uilt the castle, an oblong court protected
by a ditch, which was afterwards increased by the
addition of a second parallelogram, and within the
walls was enclosed the ancient monastery of theii'
^ The text of the deed of gift is given by Lucio. de Kegn. ii. x.
p. 85-86 ; the date of it is 1076.
VOL. I. A a
354 Vrana: History. [Ch. viii.
predecessors. Lamprldio, archbishop of Zara In
1 163, claimed jurisdiction over them on the gromid
that the convent of S. Gregorio had been subject
to the see of Belgrad, but the Templars maintained
that they were independent of any bishop but
the supreme pontiff; and Alexander III, to whom
the dispute was referred, decided in favour of
the Templars in 1168. The Templars of Dalmatia
were a powerful body, and their possessions were
extensive, but they shared the downfall of their
order in 1 3 1 1 , when it was suppressed by the
Council of Vienne. Here, as elsewhere, they were
deprived of their property, and their order was jDro-
scribed ; and Vrana was given to the Knights
Hospitaller of St. John, in whose ranks many of
the Templar knights re-enlisted. The most famous
of the Hospitaller priors of Vrana were the Counts
of Palisna, who played a prominent part in the
rebellion of the Croats against Hungary after the
death of Lewis. Giovanni or Gianco Palisna, prior
of Vrana, was one leader of the conspiracy which
invited Charles III. of Naples to dispute the crown
of Hungary with Maria. In 1383 Vrana was
recovered by the supporters of the Queen, and
on Nov. 4 of that year Maria and her mother
Elizabeth visited the castle in person. After the
murder of Charles III. at Buda in 1386, it was
Palisna in concert with the Ban Horvad, who
captured the queens and conveyed them to Novi-
grad where Elizabeth was murdered, and Maria
confined till her captor was compelled by the
Ch. VIII.] Vrana: History. 355
Venetians to release her in 1387^ Threatened
by Sigismund, and besieged in his castle of Vrana,
Palisna invited Tvartko king of Bosnia to his
assistance ; the siege of Vrana was raised in 1389,
and the besiegers chased to the walls of Zara,
and in the year 1391 the army of Sigismund was
repulsed before Knin by the forces of Bosnia, under
the command of Palisna. In the following year
Palisna died, and Tvartko only survived him a
month, his death dissolving the kingdom which
he had established over the whole of Dalmatia,
except Zara and Pagusa. In 1392 the priorate
of Vrana was finally suppressed by Vuk Vucich
Ban of Bosnia, who seized the last prior and threw
him into prison.
Vrana was one of the places which Ladislaus
of Naples sold to the Venetians in 1409^; they
retained it till 1538, when it was surrendered to
the Turks after the fall of Clissa, and was left
in Turkish possession by the peace of 1540. Under
the Turks the place became very prosperous, and
the large Han or Khan, still standing close by
the castle, was built by them for the accommodation
of caravans of traders from the interior to the
coast. In the seventeenth century Ali-beg, the
Sangiac of Licca, made his residence at Vrana,
and like a true Oriental adorned the place with
beautiful gardens irrigated -\\\\\\ elaborate water-
' Yid. sup., History, Chapter i. p. 126-129, and Cliapt. v. p. 325.
"^ 'Nee uon ten-am Lauranae cum fortalicio et castro ii)sius.'
Cited by Lucio, v. v. p. 263.
A a 2
356 Vrana : History. [Ch. VIIT.
works, of which the ruins might still be seen at
the time of Fortis's visit, ninety years ago\ But
Ali-beg was not left to enjoy his gardens in peace :
he was attacked and defeated by Pisani in January
1647, and later in the same year was besieged by
the same officer with 5000 men in the fortress of
Zemonico, Ali-beg made a desperate resistance,
but was compelled to capitulate, the conditions
of his surrender being that he should submit to
a month's detention at Zara and then be set at
liberty. But the treachery of some Turks who had
remained hidden in the fortress was considered by
the Venetians a breach of this engagement, and Ali-
beg instead of being restored to liberty was sent
to Brescia, where he died.
The Venetians burned the horgata of 600 houses
which surrounded the castle, and dismantled the
castle itself, in order to avoid the necessity
of placing and maintaining a garrison there, and
in consequence they were obliged to leave it in
the possession of the Turks at the peace of 1669,
which only confirmed them in their possession
of such places as they had occupied by a garrison.
Vrana, however, never played any part again in
the wars of the Turks and Venetians, and on the
conclusion of the peace of Carlovitz was left in
^ Fortis says : — ' The gardens of Hali-Beg are reduced to heaps
of rubbish ; and the waters that were formerly conducted by art,
to adorn and refresh them, now run in disorderly streams mixing
with many others which a hundred years ago were also formed into
artificial channels and conveyed into the lake.'
Ch. VIII.] Vrana. 357
the possession of the Republic. It is said that
the title of Beg of Vrana still remains among the
Turks in the same family which last held it, and
that of Prior Auraniae among the titles of nobility
at the court of Hungary ^ In 1752 Vrana was
granted as a feud of the Republic to the ancestors
of Count Borelli of Zara, the present owner.
The distance from Zara to Vrana is about twenty-
five English miles, over bad roads, except for part
of the way where there is no road at all. There
is no accommodation to be had at Vrana, nor in the
neighbourhood, and the only way in which we
could visit it was by going and returning the
same day. This we managed by sending on a
pair of horses the day before to S. Filippo, so
as to have fresh beasts to take us over the worst
part of the way.
We started between five and six in the morning
with a pair of horses, and soon turned out of the
main road, which is very good, into a country road
that skirts the shore and often runs close to the
water's edge. The country was low and undulating,
the soil as usual rocky, but well clothed with
vegetation. Oliveyards and vineyards alternated
with districts of woodland and a thick undergrowth
of myrtles, junipers, and dwarf elders ; but the
woods in Dalmatia are badly managed and cut too
' Mons. Bianchi, Zara Cristiana, vol. ii. p. 366, says that the
last possessor of the title of Prior of Vrana was Mons. Franc. Kralj,
president of the chapter of Agram, who left 200 florins to the
church at Vrana.
358 Vrana: Torrette, [Ch. VIII.
often, so that it is rare to see anything that can
be called timber.
Passing Borgo Erizzo, a colony of Albanians, who
are said to be the most industrious and meritorious
peasants in the district of Zara, we reached Bibigne,
and then S. Cassiano, where on a rock in the little
bay round which the village is built stands the
ruin of the summer retreat built for himself by
Archbishop Valaresso, when his jealous relatives
prevented him from spending his money on building
a campanile for the duomo of Zara^ It is a square
castellated building standing in the water and
totally dismantled : as there was not a boat
immediately available we did not stay to visit it,
and indeed there seemed little to interest us had
we done so.
At the end of four hours we reached Torrette,
a little walled village with one old gate and two
of its angle bastions still perfect. Torrette was
often in danger from the Turks in the seventeenth
century and the inhabitants of the neighbourhood
were glad to shelter themselves in its narrow and
crowded alleys. Now that they have no occasion
for this confinement they have moved their quarters
into the open country, and the village is full of
deserted houses which are falling into ruin. The
house of Signer Santini, with whom we were to
dine on our return from Vrana, has some traces
of Venetian architecture, and commands a lovely
^ See above, p. 281.
Ch. VIII.] Lake of Vrana. 359
view of the Canale di Zara with the outlying islands
of Pasman and Ugliano.
At S. Filippo, where we changed horses, we left
the sea-shore, and struck inland by a mere mule
track across an open down of rock covered with
a shrubby undergrowth of myrtle and juniper,
and on reaching the top of the ridge the view of
the lake of Vrana burst upon us backed up by
mountains of considerable elevation. The lake is
eight miles long and two miles wide, and is the
largest in Dalmatia ; its colour is green, contrasting
strongly with the deep ultramarine of the sea, which
from our standpoint was visible at the same time.
Descending to the valley we found a somewhat
better road, which took us to Vrana on the
farther shore by a wide sweep round the head
of the lake, which ends in an extensive reedy
swamp over which the road passes by a causeway.
Beyond are extensive ' prati,' — a rare sight in
Dalmatia, — where much hay is made ; but in winter
and spring the lake rises and lays a great part of
the plain under water. The water is brackish,
though not so much so but that the people of Vrana
drink it for want of better, but the saltness seems
to prove the existence of some subterranean com-
munication with the sea. That the lake is not
above the sea level is apparent from the failure
of an attempt to drain it by a canal cut to the
sound, which had the effect of letting the sea into
the lake and making matters worse ^ ; and if there is
^ Patou, Highlands aud Islands of the Adriatic, vol. ii. p. 93.
36o
Vrana.
[Ch. VIII.
a subterranean communication it would be useless
to attempt to drain it by pumping engines as has
been suggested. The fishing is said to be good,
but we saw no boats except coracles, such as may-
have been used by the primitive Illyrians, and are
still to be seen on our own Welsh rivers.
An hour and a-half after leaving S. Filippo we
reached the village of Vrana, which is situated
on rising ground at the northern end of the
lake.
Fig. 20.
The castle (Fig. 20) is a stupendous heap of ruins
covering a very large extent of ground on the sum-
mit of a natural elevation. It was a very regular
building, consisting of two rectangular courts di-
vided by a central wall, and surrounded by a deep
fosse, excavated for the most part in the solid
rock. Notwithstanding the enormous strength of
the masonry the whole now lies in utter ruin,
and never was an ancient castle more thoroughly
Ch. viiL] Vrana. 361
'slighted.' In one corner of the first courtyard is
pointed out the site and a few remains of the con-
ventual church of S. Gregorio, but one looks in
vain for any traces of the great hall, on whose walls
were hung the knightly shields and cuirasses of the
brotherhood, whose four windows recorded in their
richly storied panes the feats of the order, and
within which was concerted the conspiracy for over-
throwing the two queens and placing Carlo of
Durazzo on the throne of Hungary ^ The outer
courtyard has but little left of its girdle of walls
and towers, which lie in confused heaps of masonry,
thrown about in all directions by the gunpowder of
the Venetian engineers. The inner court is more
perfect ; it seems to have been reached only through
the other, and only by one small doorway in
the party wall, beside which is an embrasure
splayed inwards, and with a round hole outwards
as if for a cannon. This is about the only piece of
wrought masonry remaining in the building, which
has long served the Morlacchi of the neighbourhood
for a quarry. The only building within the enclosure
of which any considerable part remains perfect is a
tower, which may have been the keep, though its
dimensions are but small, the interior measuring-
only nine feet six inches by nine feet on the ground
floor within the walls, which are five feet six inches
thick. The walls of this tower are riddled in the
inside with pigeon-holes like those of our Pembroke-
shire churches, perhaps for the same purpose of
^ Bianchi, Zara Cristiana. Vid. sup. History, p. 125.
362 Vrana. [Ch. vill.
affording provision in case of extremity. There is a
well in the interior of this courtyard which is now
choked up.
Close by the castle is the Turkish Han or
caravanserai, now the farmyard of Count Borelli.
It is a large square-walled enclosure with entrances
on two opposite sides under towei^s. The entrance
archways are pointed, and have an unmistakeably
oriental look about them, as have also the few other
architectural features the building possesses. The
passages through the towers have vaulted ceilings
with pointed arches, but the farther tower of the
two is much ruined, and so are most of the build-
ings surrounding the courtyard, a small two-storied
building on one side being all that seems habitable.
The exterior wall contains many fragments of antique
buildings, and is constructed in the oddest and
most inartificial way, with stones set upright as
slabs, and without any regular coursing, as bad a
piece of walling as was ever put together, shewing
that the Turkish builders were but poor craftsmen.
Vrana is now a collection of scattered cottages
distributed about the neighbouring hills, with here
and there a little fort or watch-tower, once an out-
post of the great castle. The population amounts
to something over 300 at the present day, but
round the castle may still be seen the foundations
of the houses and streets of a considerable town,
which was destroyed during the wars of the Turks
and Venetians. Vrana was the birthplace of Luciano
Laurana, the architect of the palace at Urbino, who
Ch. viil] Vrana. 363
first saw the light here m 1420. The fact that
there is no place in Dalmatia now going by the
name Laurana, and that there is a place on the
eastern coast of Istria near Fiume called Lovrana,
has led Gaye and others to make Luciano an Istrian
of the latter place. Against this there is in favour
of his Dalmatian orioin the fact that he is described
in one document as ' egregius vir Lucianus . . . q.
Martini de Jadia Provinciae Dalmatiae architectus'
and in another as ' Magister Lucianus Martini de
Lauraniia architector.' Jadia can hardly be any-
thing but Jadera or Zara, within the territory of
which place Vrana is situated, while Lovrana is far
distant across the Quarnero, and not in Dalmatia
at all. Laurana is known also to have been an old
form of the name Vrana ; it occurs in the deed of
sale by Ladislaus of Naples of his rights in Dalmatia
to the Venetians in 1409, where there is no room to
doubt that the Laurana in question is the Vrana
of which Ladislaus had shortly before become pos-
sessed^ ; and Farlati quotes a passage from the
' Topographus Magni Regni Hungariae/ which seems
to dispose of any doubt that may remain on this
subject : ' Urana alias Aurana sive Laurana Celebris
in jyrimis est a Rhodiorum eqicitum statione.'
^ Vid. Lucio de Eegno, 1. v. c. iv. p. 260, ' Vranam obsedit,
deditioneque recepit;' lb. c. v. p. 263, 'the king sells,' Civitatcin
ladrae . . . uec uou terrara Lauranae cum fortalicio et castro
ipsius.' These passages, and also that from Failati, cited in the
text (Illyr. Sacr. Proleg. ii. v. § iv.), are not noticed by Prof.
Brunelli in his essay on the subject in the Aunuario Dalmatico
for 1884 — q.v.
364 Vrana : Luciano di Laiirana. [Ch. tiii.
Luciano Laurana studied his art probably at
Venice, but found employment at Naples, where he
is said to have built the palace of Poggio reale,
which is now destroyed, though the dates present
some difficulty. Baldi^ says that his employment
at Urbmo was due to the recommendation of the
King of Naples. Duke Federigo da Montefeltro
' having made enquiry of many 'princes in order to
obtain architects able to give him satisfaction, among
many others one ivas sent to him. by the kings of
Naples 7iamed Luciano, born at Laurana, a 2ylccce
of Sclavonia.' Baldi says that Luciano was a good
draughtsman and painted skilfully, as may be ' see7i
from certain little pictures in ivhich certain scenes
are drawn in perspective and coloured, about ivhich
there is no doubt that they are his, he having written
his name 07i them, and other things, in the Sclavonic
language and character.^
The patent of Federigo of Montefeltro, Count of
Urbino and Castel Durante, and Captain General
of the League, is dated from Pavia, June 10, 1468.
It begins by reciting the honour and commendation
due to those who excel in architecture, and goes
on to say that ' having searched everywhere, and
especially in Tuscany, ivhere is the fountain of archi-
tects, and not having found a man tridy intelligent
and well skilled in that craftl the Count had finally
selected Messer Lutiano to build his new palace.
This is a high tribute to the reputation enjoyed
^ Descrizione del palazzo ducale d' Urbino. Yenezia, 1590.
Ch. VIII.] Podgrajc, the aticie7it Assesia. 365
by this Dalmatian master among contemporary
artists ^
The greater part of the exquisite palace at
Urbino must be assigned to Baccio Pintelli, who
succeeded to the post of architect after the death
of Luciano, which occurred at Pesaro probably in
the year 1481. But we may still see the hand of
the original architect in the earlier parts of the
building, such as the windows of two lights towards
the street leading upward from the duomo, which
are easily distinguishable from the later work of
Baccio in the Cortile^, The name of Luciano is
preserved by Giovanni Santi, the father of Raffaelle,
in his eulogistic poem on the great Federigo his
patron.
' E r ai-chitetto a tutti gli altri sopra
Fu Lucian Lauranna, huomo excellente
Che il nome vive, benche morte el cuopra.
Qual cum 1' ingegno altissimo e possente
Guidava 1' opra col parer del Conte,
Che a cio il parer aveva alto e lucente
Quant' altro Signer mai e le voglie pronte.'
Canto Ivi.
A mile from the castle is Podgraje, the ancient
Asseria or Assesia, with Roman remains, which we
^ The whole patent will be found in Punyileoni, Vita, &c. di
Bramante, p. 6-^, ed. 1836. It was first published by this writer.
The original is in the Archivio di Urbino unito all' Archivio
Mediceo, Divis. B. fila. viii. It was republished by Gaye, Car-
teggio inedito d' artisti dei Secoli xiv-xvi.
^ For further particulars relating to this subject see the article by
Prof. Brunelli in the Annuario quoted above ; Dennistoun's Dukes of
TJmbria, vol. i ; and the ' Palast von Urbino,' by Fried. Arnold,
Leipzig. Also Gaye's Carteggio, &c. &c., vol. i. p. 214, &c.
366 Vrana. [Ch. viii.
were unable to visit. They are described by Fortis,
who gives a plan of the walls and gates. He says
that the walls vary in thickness from eight to eleven
feet, that they are faced with stones some of which
are ten feet long, and that in places they are thirty
feet high. One of the gates retained at the tmie of
his visit part of its arch, and one of the bastions was
polygonal in plan, with a point to the front like
modern fortifications. Bastions of the same kind are
to be seen in the Roman walls of Salona.
In the same neighbourhood Mr. Paton ^ visited a
natural grotto with the figure of a recumbent water
nymph cut in the rock, of which we heard nothing
at the time of our visit. There was no one at Yrana
to help us in our researches. Visitors are extremely
rare, and the antiquities of the place have received
very little attention. The Croat peasant who acted
as our guide was much interested in our visit, and
made many enquiries about us of the Dalmatian
gentleman who had accompanied us from Zara.
'These signori are English?' 'Yes.' 'From what
part of England?' 'London.' 'They come here
then from the largest city in the world to see our
things, and yet our own people never think of
coming to look at them,'
We returned to Torrette in time to enjoy the truly
Dalmatian hosj)itality of Signer Santini, and to see
his famous grey thoroughbred horse, the pride of the
neighbourhood. And when it was time to start and
our poor tired jades were brought round, the gallant
^ Highlands and Islands of the Adriatic, vol. ii. p. 99.
Cii. Ylll.] Vrana. 367
grey was put to, and Signer Santini and I flew a
few miles along the road before we turned to rejoin
our equipage and say farewell. I heard afterwards
that I had had an escaj)e, for that the grey horse
had caused Signor Santini many an upset. We
reached Zara as^ain about eio^ht o'clock in the
evening.
CHAPTEK IX.
Sebenico.
History. The Duomo. The Sacristy. Other Churches. Giorgio
Orsini. Scardona. Falls of the Kerka.
Although the Sebenzani in their pubHc inscrip-
tions latinize the name of their city into Sicum, and
their own into Sigenses, Sebenico has no claim to
represent the ancient Roman colony of Sicum where
Claudius settled his veterans \ Sicum is placed by
Pliny between Tragurium and Salona, and stood
probably near Castel Vitturi, on the Piviera dei
Castelli, where a place named Siclis is mentioned in
the Peutinger table. Sebenico has in fact no pre-
tensions to antiquity ; it was unknown to Porphyro-
genitus, and first makes it appearance in history as
a Croatian and not a Dalmatian town. Giustiniani,
a writer who preceded Lucio-, says it was founded
by bandits or euscocchi, who at first from a fort on
the hill watched the sea for ships which they
attacked and plundered, and afterwards formed a
' ' Tragurium civiuni Romanorum marmore notum ; Sicum in
quern locum Divvis Claudius vetei'anos misit. Salona colonia,' &c.
Plin. iii. xxii. Farlati says, ' en-ant vol maxime qui Sicum inter ac
Sibenicum nihil interesse existimant.' Part ii. Proleg. c. v. § iii.
Vid. Sir J. Wilkinson, vol. i. p. 76.
^ Quoted by Fortis, Viagg. in Dalm.
Ch. IX.] Scboiico : History. 369
colony on the shore which they surrounded with a
palisade or ' sihue,' whence came the name Sebenico.
Whatever its origin may have been, Sebenico was
a favourite jolace with the kings of Croatia, many of
whose acts are dated ' apud castrum Sibenici,' and it
was visited by Coloman in 1 105, after the Hungarian
conquest of Dalmatia. In 1117^ the ' impregnable '
town of Sebenico was taken and destroyed by
Ordelafo Faliero, together with the other Croatian
towns of Belgrad Nona and Novigrad. Sebenico
was however but a small place ^ till 1127, when the
Croatian city of Belgrad (Zara Vecchia) was de-
stroyed by the Doge Domenico Michieli, the bishop
and clergy w^ere removed to Scardona, and the bulk
of the jDopulation took refuge at Sebenico, which
from that time rapidly advanced in importance. In
1 167 Stephen III raised it to the rank of a free city
conferring on it a charter and privileges sunilar to
those enjoyed by the old Dalmatian cities of Trail
and Spalato, and from that time forward Sebenico
must be reckoned as within the Dalmatian pale,
though a Croatian town by descent and tradition^.
Lucio says the Sebenzani were some time in learn-
ing to wear their new privileges easily ; accustomed
for so long to be governed despotically, they accom-
modated themselves with difficulty to the Dalmatian
laws ; they had counts appointed for life, and not for
' ' Inexpugnabile castrum Sebenici obtiiiuit et diruit.' Daiidolo,
lib. ix. c. xi. pars 21.
"^ ' Parvi circuitus oppidum.' Luc. iii. vii. jx 125.
' Luc. iii. vii. ji. 127.
VOL. I. B b
370 Sebenico : History. [Ch. ix.
a short term like the other cities, who were with
difficulty restrained from their old habits of piracy,
and they were more exposed than the other cities
to the arbitrary interference of the Ban^ Gradually
however the Sebenzani became Latinized, and in
later ages the city was described by Fortis as
next to Zara the best built in Dalmatia, and
inhabited by the greatest number of noble families,
' as far removed from the barbarous manners of
ancient pirates as their houses are unlike the former
cottages or sibice ;' and the same writer tells us that
' in the sixteenth century the arts and sciences
flourished in this city more than in any other of
Dalmatia^'.
Like her neighbours Sebenico passed under the
rule of Manuel in 1 171-80, and an accusation of
piracy made against the Sebenzani while under
the imperial government may perhaps be explained
by political reasons. Alexander III writes from the
Rialto to complain that Nestros and Porlat, two
counts of Sebenico, had robbed his envoy the sub-
deacon Raimondo on his way back from the King of
Naples, and had taken from him everything except-
ing sixty marks, including the letters he was bearing
from the King to the Pope, which latter theft Lucio
thinks may have been made at the instigation of
Manuel or his officers.
During the confusion that succeeded the Tartar
^ Luc. vi. ii. p. 275.
" Vid. above Chaj). i. p. 177 for a list of the illustrious natives
of Sebenico.
Ch. IX.] Sebenico : History. 371
invasion and retreat, Sebenico, like Trali and
Spalato, was for a short time independent, but
unfortunately, like them, she used her liberty for
a cloak of contention and plunged into a quarrel
with the Tralirini. The independence of Sebenico
was soon overshadowed by the rising power of
the counts of Bribh% but while the Sebenzani had
been occupied in their dissensions with Trail, the
people of Zara had taken the opportunity to filch
from them their islands of Morter Zuri and Arte.
In 1298 Sebenico, which had been till then in the
diocese of Traii, was raised to the dignity of a see, by
the influence of Gregory count of Bribir and Maria
queen of Naples with the Pope Boniface VIII, ' in
vanum reclamantihus Traguriensihiis^' The first
bishop was Martino, a Franciscan of Arbe '-.
In 1322 the tyranny of the counts of Bribir drove
the people of Sebenico and Trail, who had hitherto
been at variance, to ally themselves together, and
invoke the aid of the Venetians. With their help
Mladin of Bribir was defeated ; and while the Trali-
rini attacked one of his piratical strongholds at
Almissa the Sebenzani did the same at Scardona,
burning and spoiling the town and carrying off the
boats to Sebenico. The Venetians sent Dardi Bembo
as count to Sebenico ; and under the wise government
of the Republic the civil feuds and factions, which it
^ Luc, p. 202.
* Galvani, II re cF iirmi di Sebenico. Two bishops had been
previously elected by the people, but did not obtain the papal
confirmation: Paolo Erizio, a Venetian, in 1274, and Leonardo
Faletro or Falicri in 1287. Gams mentions a Stefano in 1253.
B b 2
'>^']'i Sebenico : History. [Ch. ix.
had been the policy of the counts of Bribir to
encourage, were composed. The Venetians restored
the islands of Morter Zuri and Arte to the Sebenzani
in 1324, giving thereby mortal offence to the Zara-
tini, who often tried to recover these islands, and
in the end revenged themselves by their fourth and
last revolt from Venice in 1345.
On the second invasion of Dalmatia and siege of
Zara by the Hungarians, the people of Sebenico,
seeing their territory ravaged, and disgusted with
the insolence of the Venetian mercenary soldiery,
sent envoys to the Ban who was then besieging
Nona, and made their submission to Lewis of Hun-
gary. Their allegiance was accepted, Andrea Giusti-
niani the Venetian count was expelled, and by the
treaty of Zara in 1358 the right of Lewis to the
whole of Dalmatia was formally recognised.
In the succeeding war of Chioggia Sebenico was
taken and burned by the Venetian admiral Vittore
Pisani in 1378, and a Venetian garrison was intro-
duced, but Hungarian authority was restored by the
peace of Turin in 1381.
During the troublous times that followed the
death of Lewis in 1382 Sebenico, like the rest of
Dalmatia, owned in turn the authority of Maria,
Tvartko, Sigismund, Ladislaus, and Sigismund again.
In 1 4 1 o the city was torn by civil dissensions between
the popular party who were for Hungary, and the
nobles who were for Venice. The popular party
expelled the nobles, who established themselves in a
fort at the mouth of the harbour and endeavoured
Ch. IX.] Sebcnico : History. 373
to force their way back again. Sigismund interfered,
punished the leaders of the popular party with death,
and restored the ' fuorusciti ; ' but this and the con-
struction of a castle to overawe the town alarmed
the people and disgusted them with Hungarian rule,
and on Oct. 30, 141 2 they surrendered the city to
the Venetians under certain conditions, of which the
following are the most important : —
\ I. The rights and privileges which the city had
enjoyed under the kings of Hungary were to be con-
firmed.
^ IV. The count was to be a Venetian noble, and
the Sebenzani were not to be called upon to pay him
more than 700 ducats for his salary.
§ VI. The obnoxious castle was to be destroyed,
and no other to be built in the city or district.
\ IX. Scardona was to be subject to Sebenico.
\ XII. Sebenico was to retain as part of her terri-
tory all the islands she had held under Lewis \
Sebenico was fortified by the Venetians against
the Turks, and under Venetian government she
advanced rapidly in wealth and consequence. The
principal event in her after-history is the invasion of
Dalmatia by the Turks under Tekely pasha of
Bosnia in 1647, when the place was besieged by the
pasha and successfully defended by Degenfelt, who
repulsed the enemy with a heavy loss of 4000 killed,
besides 5000 who had been struck down by disease.
In 1809 a French commission sat at Sebenico to
try, imprison, or shoot those Dalmatians who had
' Luc. V. c. XV. p. 264-7.
3 74 Sebenico. [Ch. ix.
been guilty of bringing back the Austrians at the
beginning of that year, and the fort S. Nicolo at the
harbour mouth was crowded with poHtical prisoners.
At the present day Sebenico is one of those towns
where party feehngs run highest between the Latin
and the Slav, and disturbances and crimes of violence
frequently occur on these grounds of difference.
Sebenico is gradually losing the reputation for polite-
ness and high culture by which it was distinguished in
the days of Fortis, and seems likely to become once
more a Croatian city.
The course of the steamers from Zara to Sebenico
lies within the channel formed by the long narrow
islands of Ugliano Pasman and Incoronata. Zara
on its low flat peninsula shone brightly in the sun
behind us as we steamed down the Canale di Pasman,
which was as smooth as a mill pond, eflectually
protected from the movements of the open Adriatic
by a double line of natural breakwaters. The
country became wilder and more barren, and the
hills approached gradually nearer the shore, but they
never attained any great elevation, and were only
remarkable for their regular pyramidal or tent-like
shape. Passing the little villages of Bibigne S. Cas-
siano Torette and S. Filippo we arrived off Zara
Vecchia, a large village on the site of the old Croa-
tian city of Belgrad. At Belgrad, or Bielo-grad,
the white city, Coloman celebrated his marriage
with the Norman princess Busita in 1097, ^^'^^ ^^
C H . IX . ] Sebenico. 375
1 102 he came here to receive the crown of Dahiiatia
and Croatia. Destroyed by the Venetians in 1127^
its ruins afforded shelter to the homeless Zaratini
after the fall of Zara in 1202, and when they were
allowed to return in 1205 and build a new Zara
their temporary home at Belgrad received the name
of Zara Vecchia, which it still retains-.
The only other place at which the steamer touches
on its way to Sebenico is the island of Morter, the
largest of the group which belonged to the territory
of Sebenico. It has a population at the present day
of 7000, of whom 1 300 inhabit the village of Stretto,
situated where the island so nearly touches the
mainland that the channel is spanned by a moveable
brido-e. Fortis describes the inhabitants of Morter
ninety years ago as ' a worthless people ; ' and says
that ' in every 'piratical boat of those parts there is
at least one of that island ivho serves the robbers as
pilot through all the passes, and as a guide to the
most unfrequented creeks and hiding ijlaces.^ Since
the disappearance of piracy the good seamanship of
the people of Morter has no doubt found a more
legitimate field for its display. Beyond Mortar
lie the islands of Zuri Capri Provicchio and Zlarin
with many more of smaller note. Zuri Provicchio and
Zlarin were all inhabited by Romans, and remains
of ancient buildings are to be seen there ^ At Zlarin
in the sixteenth century a sepulchral marble was
^ Vid. supra, History, pp. 42 and 46.
"^ Luc. de Regn., 1. iv. c. ii.
' Palladius Fuscus, also Fortis.
376
Sebenico.
[Ch. IX.
dug up with the name of Pansiana, queen of some
kingdom hitherto not identified \ Zlarin is now
famous for its coral and sponge fisheries. The coral
is gathered by an ingenious dredge which is towed
behind the vessels, with a heavy swinging weight to
break the coral off", and a bag net w^hich follows and
catches it.
Sebenico is not visible from the sea, though the
hill fort that commands the town appears above the
ii— -»«Tgri'^-.J,
^J^^^kMl'x'
Fiof. 21.
low grey hills that fringe the shore. Leaving the
open sea the steamer turns suddenly into a narrow
tortuous channel, and emerges no less suddenly into
a splendid inland haven to which there is only this
one approach. On the further side is the city (Fig.
2i), an imposing mass of picturesque old houses
piled up the mountain side, with the great white-
domed cathedral in the middle, the massive towers
of the castle of S. Anna in the highest point of the
^ Fortis.
Ch. IX.] Sebenico. 377
town, and two other old forts weathered to a rich
mellow brown colour crowning the barren summits
of two loftier hills in the backgrounds The quays
were crowded with men and women in their becoming-
national costume, and the port filled with gaily
painted coasters with huge lateen sails, laden with
wine casks, or crammed with peasants from Zlarin
and the other islands returning from market. There
is no place on the coast more inviting to a painter's
pencil than Sebenico.
The interior of the city is not less picturesque
than the outside. Its little piazzas and its steep
and winding alleys, — they can hardly be called
streets, — abound in handsome doorways and windows
of Venetian Gothic or of the early renaissance.
Everything here is Venetian ; not a single architec-
tural feature that meets the eye can be referred to a
date prior to the final Venetian acquisition of the
town in 141 2. There are numerous doorways with
a straight lintel under a pointed tympanum enclosed
by the Venetian billet moulding and charged with
well designed heraldry and flowing mantling.
Heraldry indeed was rather the fashion at Sebenico ;
there is perhaps no town in Dalmatia from which a
larger collection of escutcheons can be made, and
Sebenico is fortunate in having among her citizens a
gentleman whose industry and acquirements as an
antiquary have been turned to good account in
' The highest fort is that of S. Giovanni : the next is Forte
Barone, named after Baron Degenfelt, the gallant defender of
Sebenico in 1647. It is now abandoned and ruined.
37^ Sebenico. [Ch. ix.
illustrating the history of his native city by the
heraldic bearings on the public and private buildings,
most of which he has succeeded in assigning to their
proper families^.
Through a labyrinth of narrow streets we reached
the Piazza del duomo, which though small compared
with the piazzas of most Italian tow^ns, is not inferior
to many of them in architectural interest. On the
left is the cathedral, and on the right, built against
the steep hill side, and overtopped by the buildings
on the ascent behind, is the old loggia, a long arcaded
building of two stories, now turned into a caffe below
and a casino or club room and reading room above.
It is dated 1552 and is a structure of some stateli-
ness. But the duomo opposite (vid. Plate XII), is
worthy to rank with any Italian work of its date
and class that I know, and though there are churches
as beautiful on the other side of the Adriatic, it
would be difficult to match it in singularity of con-
struction. Indeed not only Italy but Europe may
be challenged to show another church of this size in
which neither timber nor brick is employed, every-
thing being constructed of good squared stone,
marble, and metal. In England we have a few rude
churches in Pembrokeshire, the chapel at Abbots-
^ II re d' armi di Sebenico, by Dr. F. A. Galvani, I. R. No-
tary of Sebenico, published at Venice, 1884, contains illustrations
of several hundred escutcheons from the buildings of that city,
with historical notes of their respective families, and the members
of those families who held any office at Sebenico. Dr. Galvani's
promised History of Sebenico will be a welcome addition to the
literature of Dalmatia.
Sebenico.
PlaZeM
TG.J
he Duomo
Ch. IX.] Scbcnico : the Duomo. 379
bury, and the little fourteenth century treasury at
Merton Collefre, in which the vault and roof are
united in one solid structure of masonry, and in
Ireland we have the chapel of S. Cormac at Cashel
similarly constructed, but nearly all of these are on
a diminutive scale. At Sebenico, however, the whole
of a gi'eat cruciform church is covered by a waggon
roof of stone, the underside of which forms the
ceiling, the stone covering being visible both intern-
ally and externally, without the outside roof of
timber and tiles or lead which exists in ordinary
cathedrals above the stone-vaulted ceiling. The
effect both within and without of these simple
waggon vaults over nave choir and transepts, inter-
rupted only by a dome at the crossing, is very simple
and imposing, and the design is not less successful
architecturally than it is original.
The architectural history of the duomo may be
read with tolerable exactitude from the stones them-
selves. It is evidently the work of two architects
and two periods, and in the interval which divides
them occurred the gi-eat artistic revolution of the
renaissance, so that while the earlier work is in
regular Italian Gothic, the later work is in a style
resembling that which we connect with the name
of Pietro Lombardo and his sons and ])upils. The
evidence of the building itself is confii-med by docu-
mentary proof, and with the help of the latter there
is no building in Dalmatia whose history can be
written with so much certainty as this ; the archi-
tecture speaks for itself, and the chain of documentary
380 Sebenico : the Dno7no. [Ch. ix.
evidence when tested by that of the architecture is
clear and complete.
In the year 1402 a committee was appointed,
consisting of the count, the bishop Bogdano Pulsich,
and certain nobles, to consider the question of en-
larging the old cathedral of S. Giacomo, which was
too small and otherwise unworthy of the growing
importance of the city\ A tax was laid on the
vineyards, and an impost of one-tenth on the wine
produced within the territory, and nothing more was
done for twenty-six years, during which funds were
accumulating. In 1 4 1 2 the city became part of the
Venetian territory, and on April 23, 1428, when
matters seemed ripe for beginning the new cathedral,
Francesco Michieli being the Count of the city
and territory, it was resolved by the Comune that
the new cathedral should be built on a different site
higher up in the city, where the church of S. Giovanni
now stands. Nothing was done however to put this
resolution into effect, and on June 4, 1430 it was
rescinded by a new one, which left the choice of the
site to the bishop Bogdano, the count Moise Grimani,
his ' curia,' and ten nobles of the city, by whom it
was decided that the new cathedral should occupy
the site of the old one ; 'quod ecclesia Cathedralis
^ ' Propositum fuit in dicto generali concilio per praefatum
dom. Comitem et suam curiam si videretur dicto concilio pro
augmentatione et fabrica eccl®. Cathedralis Sti. Jacobi dictae civi-
tatis Sebenici . . . ac pro ampliauda et crescenda et augmentanda
dicta ecclesia quae ad praesens non est sufficiens in tanta civitate
propter parvitatem et incongruitatem suam,' &c. &c. Atto of 1402
in the Libro Rosso del Comune.
Ch. IX.] Sebcnico : the Diiomo. 381
communis Sebenici fundari et aedifichari debeat in
platea communis juxta ejnscopatum in loco ubi ad
praesens est ecclesia Cathedrcdis^.'
The new cathedral was begun at once and well
advanced during the countship of Moise Grimani,
1430-32, whose arms appear on the north angle pier
of the west front. The architect to whom it was
entrusted has long met with unmerited oblivion, and
Dr. Galvani is entitled to the credit of having
discovered his name and restored it to fame. In the
' Atti ' of the notaries of Sebenico in 1435 and 1436
he has found the name of Messer Antonio, son of
Pietro Paolo, a Venetian, master of the works, that
is Architect, of the church of S. Giacomo of Sebenico,
to whom the design of the earlier part of the building
must therefore be attributed-. His work includes
' Cod. Supi:)l. X. 541, nellu bibblioteca di Corte in Vienna e
Coletti Cod. iv. 715. (Galvani, II re d' armi, i. 32.)
^ ' Ibique Ser Zacharias q . . . de Sibenico dedit vendidit tra-
didit et transtulerit magistro Antonio q. Petri Paoli lajDicida {sic)
di Venetia nunc habitator {sic) Sibenici et magistro Sancti Jacobi
de Sibenico ibi praesenti et per se,' &c. &c.
Mai 10, 1435. 'Atto del notajo Michele, q. Giovanni, Ibique
magister Antonins q. Petri Paoli de Venetia lapicida habitator
Sibenici et magister fabrice ecclesie Sancti Jacobi de Sibenico
dedit vendidit,' &c. &c.
Oct. 1436. 'Atto del notajo Giacomo Vuksich.' I am indebted
to the kindness of Sign. Dr. Galvani for these and other extracts
from the Atti, and the Libro Rosso, which was in his custody when
I was last at Sebenico in 1885.
The author of some interesting articles on this church in the
Blatter des christlichen Kimstvereines der Di'ucese Seckau, i886,
conjectures that Antonio is the son of Pietro Paolo delle Massegne,
the architect of the choir screen of St. Mark's at Venice, which in
many details resembles the work of Antonio at Sebenico.
382
Sebenico : the Duomo.
[Ch. IX.
the whole of the lower story of the nave and its side
aisles ; that is to say, the pillars and arches of the
nave as high as the foliaged cornice above them,
with the two western piers of the four on which the
central lantern and cupola rests ; also the exterior
walls of the aisles as high as the top of the cornice of
intersecting arches (vid. Plate XIII) ; also the rib and
panel vaults of the aisles, the great west and north
"Cvajftia TeUt-
doorways, and the north exterior wall of the transept
as high as the aforesaid cornice of the aisle, which
is continued at the same level across the transept.
The upper part of the aisle and transept walls
above this cornice is the work of another and later
hand.
In the ground-plan, Fig. 22 i, I have attempted
to distinguish the work of Antonio from that of his
successors.
* Adapted from that by Prof. Grausz in the Blatter, &c.
Ch. IX.] Sebenico : the Dtwmo. 'Xt^-i^
The central crossing and choir were thus left for the
present unattempted, it is difficult to say why, unless
the old cathedral occupied that part of the site, and
was left standmg until the nave should be finished
and occupied, when, without interruption of the
church services, the old building might be removed
to make way for the new choir and transepts. It
seems certain that in some way or other the old
church icas preserved during the building of the new,
for there are acts dated ' net coro ' during this period.
The architecture of Messer Antonio di Pietro Paolo
is of excellent Italian Gothic, with more of the
merits and fewer of the faults of that much-abused
style than most examples of it. The exterior (vid.
Plate XIII) is divided into bays by square buttress
piers, which w^ere to have been crowned no doubt
by little tabernacles containing statues, like those
between the great ogee gables of St. Mark's at
Venice, or those which actually appear over the
flanking statues of the north doorway here. The
windows are deeply splayed outside, have a pointed
arch with a billet moulding, and are divided by a
slender shaft into two narrow lights with simple
tracery in the head. Along what was to have been
the top of the wall runs a rich cornice of intersecting
semicircles springing from little corbels carved into
heads, the pointed arches formed by the intersections
being trefoil-cusped. At the west end and in the
north wall are two magnificent doorways, which are
full of excellent detail and deserve careful study.
The northern or ' Lion doorway,' as the people call
384 Sebenico : the Dtiomo. [Ch. ix.
it from the two lions that guard the entrance, is of
very beautiful Italian Gothic (vid. Plate XIII), the
leaves that run round it are undercut and pierced
behind, and the columns are delicately arabesqued,
or else twisted and fluted with rosettes set in the
flutings. From the lions' backs rise octagonal shafts
with spreading capitals supporting statues of Adam
and Eve, above which are little Gothic tabernacles
containing each a statue. The figures of our first
parents are as usual ill-made, and show that ignorance
of the human figure which is apparent whenever a
mediaeval sculptor tried his hand at the nude.
Though this doorway is evidently from its style
part of Antonio's work it appears from three escut-
cheons' over it that the wall above, though it follows
his design, was not finished till about 1454, after
he had ceased to be architect. The west end was
evidently raised more rapidly than the north wall.
The west doorway is in the same style but still
richer than the other. On each side of the opening
a column carries a two-storied tabernacle : figures in
niches run round the arch and are continued down
the jambs, and as a keystone is the figure of our Lord
holding an orb in one hand and blessing with the
other. The tympanum is glazed. The opening of
the doorway is surrounded by a border of very bold
Venetian foliage springing from naked figures, and
the shafts are twisted and fluted, or else richly
arabesqued. By the scutcheon of Count Andrea
^ Those of Leonardo Venier, Count 1453-4 ; Urbano Vignaco,
Bishop 1454-68; Giorgio Sisgorich, Bishoi^ 1453.
Sebenico
Plate XI \
( f
T.G.J.
v*^: I"
<C.
Capita! of north west pier
supporting the lantern.
i. *w> 4.0MDCN
Ch. IX.] Sebenico : tJie Duomo.
j^D
Loredan, on the buttress adjoining to the south, it
appears that this doorway was finished in 1438 or
1439-
The proportions of the nave arcades of the interior
(Fig, 22), which are also of Gothic work and by
Antonio the Venetian, are singularly pleasing. They
have more relation to the arcades of northern Gothic
churches than to those of Italian Gothic ; for instead
of being spread out to the enormous span and
finished with the simplicity or rather baldness of
such arcades as those of S, Maria at Florence, S.
Petronio at Bologna, or S. Antonio at Padua, which
reduce the apparent scale of the church by fully one-
half, the arcades at Sebenico are so proportioned as to
look fully as large as they are, and to give full effect
to the length of the nave, and the arches are well
moulded and handsomely finished. The spandrils
towards the nave are filled with red Verona marble
with a gilt ball in the centre of each. All the arches
are pointed, and at their springing die against wall
piers, segments of an octagon, which rise like vaulting
shafts from each column (vid. Fig, 22 a).
The shafts are monoliths, cylindrical without en-
tasis or diminution, resting on Attic bases with angle
leaves or ' toes,' and their capitals are massive and
simple in outline, and carved with vigorous foliage of
a simple Venetian type. The two larger piers that
carry the western side of the central cupola are also
monoliths of a white stone almost equal to marble ;
their section is a quatrefoil witli the addition of a
roll in eacli liollow, and their capitals are niagiii-
VOL. I, C C
386
Sebenico : the Duomo.
[Ch. IX.
Fig. 2 2 A.
Ch. IX.] Sebe7iico : the Duomo. 387
ficent examples of the richest kind of Venetian
foHage, in which with marvellous art the sculptors
of that school contrived to indulge in an almost
oriental luxuriance without weakness, and in an
almost extravagant wealth of detail without con-
fusion (vid. Plate XIV). These two larger piers,
like the rest, are the work of Messer Antonio^.
To him also must be attributed the interior vault-
ing of the aisles, which are divided into square bays,
except that the arch opposite the north doorway is
much wider than the rest — a daring irregularity in
so small and so symmetrical a church. The vaulting
is quadripartite, the transverse ribs are wide bands
with a moulded edge, and the diagonal ribs are
cabled. There are also slight wall ribs. The central
bosses are well carved ; those of the north aisle with
rosettes and the heads of a man and a lion ; those
on the south with the evangelistic emblems, which
are very finely designed and executed, and a saint
with staff and book, perhaps S. Giacomo, to whom
the church is dedicated. One of the arches has at its
apex a prettily carved shield bearing a lion rampant,
and a helm with the crest of a child holding two
little lions' heads with outstretched arms -.
With this we come to the end of the work of
the earlier architect, Messer Antonio di Pietro Paolo,
who had charge of the building from its beginning
^ They prove that a transept was part of the original phin
though it was not realized by the original architect.
" These arms have not been identified. Tlie altar below was to
have been given by the family of Rafcich. Vid. II xh d' armi,
vol. ii. p. 5.
C C 2
388 Sebenico: the DiLomo. [Ch. IX.
in 1430 or 1 43 1 till the year 1441^ In that year,
for reasons which are not quite intelligible, the
building committee became dissatisfied with their
architect and his plans ; they complained, without
as it seems to us due reason, that there were many
errors and defects in the work ; that it was not done
as they intended ; that much of the money spent on
ornament had been quite thrown away, and that
unless a change were made things would go from
bad to worse ^. To us there seems no fault in the
design of Antonio, and no extravagance in his orna-
mentation ; his construction is solid and well put
together, and in his sculpture we recognise the
touch of a master hand. Messer Antonio, however,
was dismissed, and another architect, Messer Giorgio,
invited from Venice to continue and complete the
cathedral ^.
■* This appears from the arms of Count Moise Grimani (1430-2),
above mentioned, at the north-west angle, and those of Count
Marco Erizzo (1434-36) on one of the buttresses of the north
front, and Count Andrea Loredan (1438-39) on the pier to the
right or south of the west entrance door.
^ Ap. 23, 1 44 1. Libro Rosso del Municipio : 'Cum in fabricatione
dictae ecclesiae Cathedralis S. Jacobi de Sebenico commissi fuerunt
multi errores et defectus praeter omnem intentionem nobilium
civium Sibenicensium, et aliorum qui in ejus fabrica pori'igunt
nianus suas adjutores, et facta fuerunt magna expensa pro horna-
mento et decora ipsius ecclesiae que expensa abjecta fuerunt,
quoniam edificia et partimenta ipsius ecclesiae non fuerunt debitis
modis composita et fabricata, et justissima res sit . . . errores et
defectus quo ad melius fieri poterit reformare, et providere ne in
futurum de malo in pejus convertantur quin immo de bono in
melius reformentur,' &c. &c.
^ Monsignor Fosco, the present bishop of Sebenico, has written
the history of his cathedral, and has there collected particulars
Sebenico
PUtUXV.
t0-
"n»>^->
"^:r
h%\
■^A
" r
*^
sa» A rfl*
H-^-
-iiS: -j
■s^i^K^^I^
TG.J.
-PHOTO SPftACUCftC? LONDON.
Ch. IX.] Sebenico : the Diiomo. 389
Giorgio seems to have been born at Zara. His
father, Matteo, was a scion of the ancient and
princely Roman house of Orsini ; but the branch to
which he belonged had sunk in the world, and been
reduced to support itself by manual arts inconsistent
with the idea of nobility as then understood, and the
family name had been allowed to fall into disuse^.
Giorgio seems to have studied architecture at Venice,
where we find him, still a young man, married to
Elisabetta da Monte, who brought him as her dowry
some house property in that city. After his engage-
ment at Sebenico in 1441 he seems to have
made that city his domicile ; it w^as here that he
invested his savings in concert with two partners in
a grocery business, and in a merchant ship, connected
perhaps with the former concern ; and here he finally
built himself a house and settled down close to the
great church on which his fame as an architect
principally rests ^.
concerning the life and works of Giorgio Orsini which are very
valuable. The original contract between the procurators of the
church and cei'tain nobles of Sebenico on the one joart, and Giorgio
the son of Matteo of Zara on the other, is published by Mons. Fosco
in an appendix to the pamphlet on the church of Sebenico by Nicolb
Tommaseo, a native of Sebenico, whose name is famous in Italian
politics and literature. I shall append the contract to this
chapter. It is extremely interesting as illustrative of the position
and practice of a mediaeval architect. Vid. p. 416, infra.
^ His family descent from the Orsini was formally recognised in
1540 in the person of his grandson Giacomo, an advocate.
"^ Vid. an article by Dr. F. A. Galvani in the Annuario Dal-
matico, vol. i. 1884, Zara. That Giorgio was not a native of
Sebenico is proved by the description of him in several ' Atti ' of
1441-1450; e. g. ' Magister Giorgius lapicida quondam ^Tatthaei di
Jadra, habitator Vcnctiarum ad praesens existcns Sibenic,' &c. &c.
390
Sebenico : the Dtiomo.
[Ch. IX.
Giorgio was already more than half a convert
to the renaissance, although that movement had
hardly begun to make itself felt at Venice. He
discarded the style of his predecessor all the more
easily, no doubt, because of the discredit that had
fallen on his j)lans, and started at once in the new
manner. The task before him was to build the choir,
of which the foundations had not been laid, to raise
and roof the nave which was only comj)leted to
the top of the aisle vaults, and to construct some
covering either by a lan-
tern and cupola or other-
wise over the crossing.
Giorgio did not live to
accomplish his task ; but
before entering into the
question how far the later
part of the building is of
his designing it will be
well to describe it in its
present completed form.
The choir is prolonged with one short bay east-
ward of the transept and finishes with three apses ;
on the Gothic cornice of the nave aisles is raised a
low wall, which is crowned with a second cornice,
from which springs the external roof of the aisle ; in
the nave the new work starts from the rich foliaged
cornice (Fig, 23) which runs above the nave arcades,
over which it begins with a roll moulding carved
into laurel leaves classic fashion ; on this is placed
a low triforium gallery of square-topped openings
Fig. 23.
Ch. IX.] Sebenico : the Duomo. 391
divided by fluted piers, and above this is raised
a lofty clerestory wall, pierced with a plain round-
arched window in each bay, and crowned with a rich
cornice from which the roof springs. The roof itself
is the most original part of the design ; it consists of
a waggon vault of long stones supported by a sti'ong
rib at each bay, each course of the vaulting stones
being tongued and grooved and accurately fitted to-
gether so as to be impervious to weather. This is con-
tinued over nave, choir, and transepts, and the gable
ends of these four arms instead of being as usual tri-
angular are semicircular, like the roof which generates
them. The aisles throughout are covered by quadrant
roofs of the same construction, those of the nave aisles
being placed above and clear of the early vaults, so
as to form a triforium or gallery between the two
systems of vaulting. In the centre over the crossing a
low square tower is raised till it surpasses the height
of the four abutting roofs, w^hen it turns into an
octagonal lantern covered by an octagonal cupola
which rises to a point, the whole constructed of slabs
of stone like the nave vaults, and crowned by a
gyrating angel (vid. Plates XII. and XV).
The construction of this central part and of the
vaults throughout is wonderfully light, and indeed
perilously so. The whole depends, it need hardly
be said, on iron ties, for there are no external
buttresses to resist the thrust of the vault, nor in-
deed is it possible to buttress a barrel vault. The
architect has gone to the verge of overdaring ; his
lantern is all window, having two large windows in
392 Sebenico: t/ie Dttomo. [Ch. ix.
each face ; and the four piers that support the
central lantern and cupola are astonishingly slender,
being in fact monoliths set end ways of the
bed. The daring of the design, however, has been
partially justified by the stability of its construc-
tion down almost to our own days. Unhappily
in 1843 symptoms of clanger had appeared, owing
perhaps more to the disintegTation of the stone
of which the building was constructed than to any
fault of design. Under the direction of Signer
Paolo Bioni, an architect of Sebenico, the whole of
the nave vault was taken down and reset, and a
good deal of it replaced by new stone, the grooved
joints being made good with cement, instead of as
heretofore with lead. The cupola also was taken
down to the top of the four supporting arches and
rebuilt, and one of the columns of the nave arcade
with its capital was taken out and replaced by new,
the superstructure being meanwhile carried on shor-
ing. The repairs lasted several years and cost
200,000 florins, equal to about £16,000 of our
money, and the church was not reopened for service
till i860.
The general effect of the interior is extremely
beautiful ; I know no other church of its size that
creates so profound an hupression. The effect
is owing in gi^eat measure to the simplicity of
the plan, the height of the vaults, and the elevation
of the choir. The latter occupies the space under
the dome, and the shallow transepts which do not
pass the line of the aisle walls are floored across
Sebenico
Pl^aJLeXin.
TGJ
Porta del leoni
C- LOnOOH-
Ch. IX.] Sebenico: the Dnomo. 393
with large slabs of stone to form galleries behind
the stalls, one for the organ, the other for the
singers. An admirably finished balustrading of
twisted shafts and little round arches in white
marble forms the front of the galleries, and is con-
tinued on each side with a sweep half round the
great piers at the entrance of the choir so as to
form an ambo to the right and left^. Nothing
was ever better imagined (vid. Fig. 22 a). The choir
itself is curious, the seats and backs being of marble,
as if the architect had resolved that no wood
should enter into his building even in the shape
of furniture.
Giorgio, as I have said, did not live to see his
building finished. He assumed the direction of the
works in 1441, and it appears from the following
inscription on the north-east angle that the founda-
tion of the new choir and apses was laid in 1443 : —
TEMPLA TIBI CVRE PRESVL VENERANDE GEORGI
SISGORIDE STIRPIS CLARO DE SANGVINE NATE
VRBS A FANTINO REGIT VR PROCOMSVLE DIGNO
PISAVRE PROLIS VENETVM DOMINANTE SENATV
CVM PARS ISTA DOMVS DOMINI PRIMORDIA SVMPSIT
MILLE QVATER CENTVM DOMINI LABENTIBVS ANNIS
QVADRAGINTA TRIBVS MICHAEL DVM PROTEGIT VRBEM
ARMIGER EJVSDEM REGIS QVOQVE JANITOR ALMVS
l)oc opuss cuuarum fecit nuiffi^tcc (Bcocffiusi Sl^arljaci HDalntaticiicf.
In the August of that year he contracted with
one Zanchetti of Zara for 200 or 210 rough blocks
^ The date of these ambos and balustrades is 1547.
394 Sebenico : the Diiomo. [Ch. ix.
of marble from Arbe. In the following year he
contracted with certain noble families of Sebenico
for a series of altars, one to each bay of the
nave, with the arms of each donor above his
respective altar ; but this project was never
carried out. In the same year Giorgio was oc-
cupied in building the chapel of S. Rainerio at
Spalato, now hidden within the military hospital,
but his principal attention was given to the great
work at Sebenico w^hich was carried on with energy
till 1448, when for want of funds it was suspended \
and it was not resumed till the time of bishop
Luca di Tollentich, 1469-91. Giorgio in the mean-
while was occupied busily elsewhere. In 1448 he
designed and erected the altar of S. Anastasio in
the duomo of Spalato with an Italian Gothic canopy,
the conditions being that it should correspond in
all respects with the opposite altar and canopy
by Bonino di Milano. From 1450 to 1461 he was
absent from Sebenico, and we hear of him at Venice,
and also at Ancona, where he completed the loggia
dei Mercanti between 145 1 and 1459, and built the
front of S. Francesco della Scala in the same city;
also at Recanati, where he was employed on the
church of S. Agostino, and at Cittanuova in the
Marches, where he began the facade of the church
of S. Maria. In 1464 he was again at Sebenico,
but was summoned to Ragfusa to undertake those
works on the Rectorial Palace which we shall have
to consider when we reach that building. His
' Libro Rosso del Comune, cited Fosco, p. 9.
Ch. IX.] Sebenico : the Dtiomo. 395
engagement with the Ragusan signory began in
June 1464. In 1466 he was employed by Antonio
Palcic Bishop of Ossero on a new palace at Pago,
whither that prelate hoped to transfer his see,
but the work w^as not completed. He was engaged
also on the front of the cathedral at Pairo and on
the chapel of S. Nicolo there, and it is thought
he may have been the architect of the new cathedral
which Bishop Palcic began at Ossero, though I saw
nothing in that building that reminded me of his
work at Sebenico or Rao^usa. He was ao:ain at
Sebenico in 1467 and 1468, as appears from various
documents containing his name, and in 1470 he was
honoured by his fellow-citizens with a mission to
Rome on matters connected with a charitable bequest
of Bishop Vignacco, and he was invested with
plenipotentiary powers to act on their behalf at
the papal court. His return took place at all events
before May 1471, as we find him on the 22nd of
that month taking an apprentice for eight years.
His presence indeed had become necessary, for
about the same time the works at the Duomo were
resumed.
The new bishop Luca de ToUentich set to work
in earnest to complete his cathedral and contributed
largely from his own purse to the expenses. The
work must have been begun again in 1470 or 147 1,
and it was carried on vigorously until the death of
the bishop in 1491.
In 1475 Giorgio died leaving his building incom-
plete.
396 Sebenico : the Dttotno. [Ch. ix.
If we turn to consider critically the artistic merit
of those parts of the design which may with
certainty be attributed to Giorgio, it will be found
to consist rather in boldness and originality of con-
ception than in any great skill or keen sense of
beauty in the elaboration of details. The general
effect of the exterior of his building is admirable, but
the details are not always commendable. His cornices
and mouldings are graceful and refined, and there is
a good deal of fancy and caprice in the friezes of
little boys grouped in pairs and holding festoons,
and in the capitals of birds wreaths and bunches
of grapes in the interior of the transept, which
are no doubt in great part carved by his own hand,
the terms of his contract binding him to work
manually not only as a mason but as a sculptor ;
but on the other hand there is a good deal of
sham perspective in niches and panels, which are
but dull conceits, and detract from the beauty
and purity of the design. In respect of his details
Giorgio must yield the palm to his predecessor
Messer Antonio, whose hand was much surer, and
who though perhaps inferior to Giorgio as an
engineer was certainly a better artist. Nothing
makes the superiority of Antonio's detail more
apparent than the comparison of the magnificent
capitals of the two ivestern piers of the cupola which
are by his hand (vid. Plate XIV.) with the very
indifferent capitals of the two eastern piers which
are by Giorgio.
The most sumptuous part of Giorgio's building
Ch. IX.] Sebenico : the Duomo. 397
is the little baptistery, occupying a lower story
in the southern apse below the raised tribune
of the south transept. It is square, and has a
column with a capital of good Venetian foliage
in each corner, much undercut, on which stand
niches of regular Italian Gothic with twisted shafts
and semi-octagonal canoj^ies. Each contained, and
two still contain, statuettes of prophets : in that
to the north-east is Simeon with a scroll bearino;
the words in Roman letters nunc dimittis dne
SERYVM TVVM. ; in another is David, crowned, and
holding an imperfect scroll with the words in
Gothic lettering t3or tim supet aquas Deus ....
In each side of the baptistery is a rounded recess
or apse covered with a conch, and the spandrils
above these conchs are filled with reg^ular Gothic
tracery, of which that to the east is pierced to
allow light to pass from a window behind. Above
this the ceiling is gathered into a circle of Venetian
foliage on which rests the flat dome, divided into
four segments by ribs from the four angle columns
and niches. These segments are filled with angels
in a classic style ^vith flowing draperies of good
but unequal design. In the centre is a boss, with
the figure of the first person of the Trinity holding
a scroll bearing the words Hic est filivs meys
DILECTVS IN QVO MIHI BENE COMPLACVI IPSVM
AVDITE, and the dove with outspread wings.
The whole of this tiny chamber is a marvel of
richness, but the style is curiously mixed and
confused, and the execution of the renaissance
398 Sebenico : the Duomo. [Ch. ix.
ornament is of an inferior quality. The font is
of breccia marble carried by three naked boys, well
imagined but indifferently executed.
It is not only here that Giorgio seems to have
been unable to forget the old Gothic style which
was still disputing the ground with its younger
rival. In the great windows of the principal apse,
though he has divided the width by a fluted
column with a renaissance capital, he has not been
able to avoid filling the heads with trefoil cusps
and Gothic tracery, and it is done so naturally
and innocently that it seems quite at home and
strikes one with no sense of incongruity (Fig. 24) ^
Giorgio's credit for great original genius must
stand or fall principally by the question whether it
was he or his successor who conceived the idea of
the mighty stone roofs which make this church
difPer from all others. When he died in 1475 the
church was not ready for the roofs : the nave had
not even its clerestory walls built ; the choir was
hardly raised to the crown of the great apse arch,
which bears on its key-stone the arms of Girolamo
Pesaro, count 1476-9 ; and the transept was prob-
^ The writer in the Blatter des Christlichen Kunstvereines der
Diocese Seckau argues tliat Giorgio began at Sebenico as a Gothic
architect, and developed into a renaissance architect as he went on.
He attributes his conversion to his association witli Michelozzo at
Ragusa in 1464. If I am right in understanding him to attribute
the two Gothic doorways to Giorgio in his Gothic manner I cannot
agree with him. We see Giorgio's Gothic work in the Baptistery
which was built before he left Sebenico for Eagusa, and find it
already mixed with renaissance details, and very unlike the pure
Gothic of the doorways.
Ch. IX.]
Sebejiico : the Diiomo.
399
ably at about the same level, as the arms of Piero
Canal, count 147 1-3, appear on the key-stone of the
exterior blank arch below the springing line of the
{SMm^
s^^
Fig. 24.
roof If then the opus cuvarwn^ which Giorgio
claims as his work is to be referred to any part of
the vaulting, it must be to the domes of the two
^ The writer in the Blatter Christl. Kinist., ic. above quoted
understands by * cuvae ' the apses, not the vaults.
400 Sebeiiico : the Dtionio. [Ch. ix.
small apses which were no doubt finished in his
lifetime, that of the large apse which was on the
point of completion, and perhaps the waggon vaults
over the choir aisles. If these are really Giorgio's
they contain the motive of the vaulting of the whole
church, which in that case would be of his concep-
tion. It is impossible that he should have carried
his work as far as he did without having made some
plan, and some special preparation for his roofs,
and the consistency of the subsequent work in its
character and details with that which he left imper-
fect favours the presumption that he left behind
him designs for the completion of the church,
perhaps a model such as that which we know he
made for the sacristy ^ and that these designs were
carried out by his successors.
The high vaults however were not closed till long
afterwards : on the outside of the north clerestory of
the nave are the arms of Nicolo Navager, count in
1489. The vaults of the choir, nave, and transepts
were probably completed before the death of Bishop
Luca di Tollentich in 1491, but the semicu^cular
gable of the west front was not closed till 1536, in
the time of Bishop Lucio Staffileo and Count Andrea
Gritti (1534-7), as appears by an inscription at the
west end. The cupola was finished in 1555, and in
that year the church was solemnly consecrated,
exactly a century and a quarter after the foundation
was laid in 1430.
The names of several architects employed on tlie
^ See Ijelow, page 403, contract for the sacristy.
Ch, IX.] Sebenico : Ike Dtiomo. 401
church after the death of Giorg-io have been
discovered by the researches of Dr. Galvani and
others. On July i, 1477, a contract was made
with Nicol5 di Giovanni da Fu-enze, who bound
himself for ten years to devote himself to this work
and to undertake none other, except that he was
to have leave to go occasionally to Trail and else-
where when lousiness called him. It is to Nicolb
that the consti-uction of the stone roofs is to be
attributed, and it is of course an open question
w^hether he is not also entitled to the glory of
having invented them, instead of his predecessor
Giorgio. We shall hear of Nicolo again when we
come to the campanile of Spalato, and the later
chapels of the cathedral of Trail \
In the year 1 5 1 7 we find the work in the hands
of Bartolommeo q?^i Giacomo da Mestre, who is
mentioned in the Atti of Notary Butrisic of Sebenico
as ' protomagister fabricae Sancti Jacobi.' He is
supposed to have been at Ragusa in 1520, and to
have desicfned the votive church of S. Salvatore,
which is confirmed by the fact that at that time
the name of another architect appears as the proto-
magistei- at Sebenico, and that Bartolommeo reap-
^ ' Conduxerunt pro protlioniagistro fabricae dictae ccclesiae
S. .Jacobi discretum et prudentem magistrum Nicolaum Johaunis
Florentinum lapicidam ibi praescntem, stipulantem et se obligantem
pro annis decern .... item quod si erit opus ipso magistro
Nicolao interduin ire Tragurium vcl alibi pro agendis suis per
duobus aut tribus diebus teneantur ipse Vicarius procuratores ct
operarii et successores eorum dare licentiara teini>us et comniodum
ipsi magistro Nicolao pro ipsis diebus,' &c. Libro Rosso del
Comune.
VOL. I. D d
402 Scbeuico : tJie Diionw. [Ch. ix
pears there in 1523 ^ He is mentioned as late as
1535-
The western gable was finished in 1536 by Gio-
vanni Masticevich of Zara ^.
The church contains the tombs of several bishops.
Giorgio Sisgorich (d. 1453) lies in a niche in the
west wall to the south of the door, with a modern
epitaph, and Lucio Staffileo (d. 1557) to the north
of it. On tilted planes, let into the riser of the
choir platform on each side of the steps, are the
effigies of two more, Luca Spignaroli (d. 1589), to
the left, and Domenico Calegari (d. 1722) to the
right.
Adjoining the duomo, on the south side of the
choir, is the sacristy, a spacious chamber raised on
a bold stone barrel vault which springs from the
wall of the bishop's palace on one side, and rests on
five columns on the other, forming an open loggia
from which there is an entrance to the baptistery.
The construction is extremely hazardous, and was
originally still more so, for there were at first but
three columns, and the two others were added for
strength at a later date. In spite of this the
Sebenzani have an incredible tradition that the
sacristy and this open story below were but the
beginning of a lofty campanile which it was in-
tended to raise above it. The soffit of the vault is
effectively divided into panels by raised fillets,
^ Gelcich, Dello sviliq^po civile di Ragusa, p. 77.
^ Blatter Christl. Kitnsi., &c. The writer relies throughout on
the authority of MSS. of Monsign. Fosco.
Ch. IX.] Sebcnico : the Duonio. 403
and the walls of the sacristy above are decorated
with flutings and panellings like the later work
in the duomo. For this sacristy is also the work
of Giorgio, and the contract with him, dated Mar. i ,
1452, is still in existence. The following extracts
are interesting as illustrating the practice of an
architect in the fifteenth century. The accuracy
with which the dimensions and position of the
building are stated seems to show that there were
no scale drawings employed, but it appears that
something of the nature of a model in clay or
plaster was exhibited to give the employers an idea
of the effect the building was intended to produce
when comj)leted.
' . . . . Itidem dictus magister Giorgius promisit
et se obligavit predictis stipulantibus nomine dictae
ecclesiae facere unam sacrestiam dictae ecclesiae
contiguam baptisterio et episcopatui, super quinque
pilastris quorum tria erunt versus praetorium comi-
tatus et duo in muro episcopatus, super quibus
pilastris ab utraque parte ponantur bordonalia ^
super quibus fundare debeat archivoltus dictae
sacrestiae, quam sacristiam laborare promisit a
tribus lateribus, quorum unum erit versus ecclesiam
longum pedibus quatuordecim cum dimidio, aliud
laterum erit versus palatium comitatus longitudinis
pedum viginti unius, et aliud esse debeat versus
portam qua exitur ad littus maris et erit longi-
tudinis pedum quatuordecim cum dimidio, et onuiia
praedicta latera sive facies facere promisit altas a
' Bordonalia are lintek'.
D d 2
404 Sebenico : the Duomo. [Ch. ix-
pilastris sursuni pedibus viginti quatuor, et pilastra
promisit laborare ad similitudinem illorum quae
facta sunt, et erunt duorum petiorum^ et archivoltum
promisit laborare de lapidibus quadratis de medio
bastone ^, et facies dictae sacrestiae laborare promisit
ad suasas^ bastonos, cunetas^, et alia laboreria juxta
formam de creta factam .... per dictum Giorgium,
cum portis fenestris et necessariis ornatis juxta ejus
conscientiam et magisterium, intelligendo quod idem
magister Giorgius non teneatur facere cornisas quae
erunt in apicibus murorum dictae sacrestiae.'
Everything corresponds exactly with this specifi-
cation, and the cornices are not made, but stop
abruptly after returning from the main wall of the
choir. The contract proceeds : —
' Quam sacrestiam facere et fabricare promisit
dictus magister Georgius omnibus suis sumptibus ex
lapidibus cavatis sive cavandis ex insula Braze et
laborare sive laborare facere perpolite uti decus
est et facere conduci et in opere poni expensis
ipsius.'
From which it appears that Giorgio had to act
as contractor as w^ell as architect. He bound
himself further to complete his contract within
twenty months, and he was to receive 600 golden
ducats for the work. The building, however, as
^ Petiorum, £c. pezzi, pieces.
^ Mezzo bastoni, the half round fillets or beads that divide the
coffers.
^ Suaza is a Venetian word for a dial or picture frame, probably
here a panel.
* Cuaetae ai'e flutins;s.
Ch. IX.] Sebenico : the Churches. 405
usual, was not finished to time, and the date of
the release given him by his employers is March 16,
1454'-
Of the other churches in Sebenico there is little
to be said. The Franciscan convent was rebuilt
between 1322 and 1340, but contains little that
can be referred to that date. Two inscriptions
in Lombai'dic lettering of 1361 and 1397, the latter
to the mother of a canon of Sebenico, are built into
the exterior wall of the church. The west door
of the chui-ch has an ogee arched tympanum with
the remams of a fresco of the Madonna and the
infant Saviour between Saints Francis and Clara ( X).
In the interior the ceiling of unpainted deal, which
has turned a lich copper colour, and has paintings
in the panels, is not amiss, and the gallery is
supported by curious capitals, of which two are like
Byzantine work, with interlaced stems and foliage
undercut and detached from the gi'ound. They
are not really so old as they look at first sight.
The church of S. Giovanni in the centre of the
town adjoining the little Piazza dell' Erbe has a
picturesque exterior staircase leading to an upper
story, and the Greek church, a little lower down
the street, has a curious western bell-cot with pro-
jecting balconies for the ringers. These and all the
other churches of Sebenico not already named are
' Atti del notiijo Carlo Vitale, Mar. 16, 1454. ' Igitur dicti
operarii et jirocuratoves confess! fuerint {sic) factum et completum
fuisse totum upus quod obllgatus erat dictus magister Giorgius
facere virtute praeallegati iustrumenti, Mar. i, 1452.'
4o6
Sebenico : the Churches.
[Ch. IX.
of late work, and there are no traces of any other
public buildings of greater antiquity than the six-
teenth or seventeenth century.
One building, however, or rather one doorway —
for nothing but a doorway remains — must not be
left unvisited. In June 1455, Michele Simeonich,
a noble of Sebenico, sold to Giorgio Orsini for 200
Fig. 25.
golden ducats ' of good and just weight ' a house in
the contrada of S. Gregorio, of which the position and
boundaries are accurately defined in the act of the
notary Manfredo Petrogna \ To this spot we were
guided by Monsignor Fosco, the bishop and historian
of Sebenico, and there sure enough we saw a door-
' Vid. Annuario Dalmatico, 1884. Article by Dr. Galvani.
Ch. IX.] Sebeiiico : Costnvie. 407
way, on the lintel of which is carved, by the hand no
doubt of Giorgio himself, the bear that symbolized
his ancestral house of the Orsini, while on each
jamb, amid j^ei^dent bouquets of flowers, hang the
mallet and chisels of his sculptor's art (vid. Fig. 25).
The costume at Sebenico is slightly different from
that at Zara. We saw less of the silver ornaments
here than there, although we were present on a
festa and a Sunday when both lads and lasses come
out in their bravest attire. The women wear
bodices laced across the front very prettily. Un-
married girls cover the bosom w^ith a white linen
front, which on festa days is beautifully clean and
stiflly starched, and fastened with gold or silver-
gilt buttons. When they marry they cover the
bosom with a square of crimson velvet, which hides
the laced boddice and the white smock, and when
they have a great many children they proclaim their
maternal achievements to an appreciative public by
exchanging the crimson for black. Their petticoats
are marvellously plaited in close folds, which how-
ever disappear with wear, and their hair is twisted
up with a w^sp of white cloth plaited into it and
wound round the head, over which a white ' 'panno'
is fastened like a turban with a pendent end behind.
This twisting and mixing the haii' with a foreign
substance seems before they grow old to wi^ench the
hair off their heads, and many of the women are
as bald as coots. This curious head-dress is no
doubt designed to enable them to carry ])urdens
easily.
4o8
Sebenico : Costume.
[Ch. IX.
The dress of the men is somewhat the same as
at Zara, but with less silver and more woollen
tassels (Fig. 26). Their physique is splendid ;
they are not only big and broad-shouldered but as
lithe and active as leopards ; and the Austrian navy,
which is manned by Dalmatians, ought to be a
match, so far as the crews go, for any in the world.
Fig. 26.
There are, however, many degrees among these
Slavs. Along the roads outside the town and in
the town itself we met scores of the wildest and
rudest figures imaginable. The Morlacchi were
bringing in the crushed grapes and juice of the
vintage, and as the vintage is very dirty work we
saw them at their worst. They ride singing and
Ch. IX.] Scar don a. 409
shouting on their rough carts drawn by shal)by Httle
ponies, sitting among the casks of trodden grape-
juice, and they stare at you from under wild shocks
of unkempt hair, on which is pressed the universal
red bonnet with its black tassel over one ear, thouo-h
the red is generally faded to a purple or claret
colour very attractive to a painter's eye. They wear
long floating moustaches and ragged beards, and
often cover their shoulders with a coat of goat's
skin with the hair on, the hairy side being worn
inside in winter and outside in summer. Round
their w^aists are sashes of striped stuff, with a
curious, many-folded leather pouch in front contain-
ing a wonderful medley of property, together with
two or three knives with ornamented handles of
bone stained green or spangled with metal, among
which often peeps out the butt of an old-fashioned
pistol.
The harbour of Sebenico is the estuary of the
river Kerka, the ancient Titius, which bursts forth
into life a full-grown river from a cavern at the foot
of Monte Dinara near Knin, and after falling over a
succession of cascades at various points in its brief
but lively career, enters the sea by the tortuous
channel that admitted us to the land-locked haven
of Sebenico.
The last and finest of these cascades is near
Scardona, and not more than twelve miles uj) tlie
4IO Scar dona. [Ch. IX.
river from Sebenico. We made the excursion in a
boat with four rowers, starting early and returning
late so as to have as many hours as possible at the
falls. Our four oarsmen dressed in national costume
of blue serge trousers and waistcoats, homespun
shirt fastened at the throat with a silver filagree
stud, and the never-failing red cap with its black
tassel over the right ear, stood and rowed Venetian
fashion, pushing like a gondolier, instead of pulling
as we do, this being the way of all boatmen in the
Adriatic.
At the northern end of the harbour the hills
gradually close in till the sea becomes a river : but
this river is unlike those of less sterile regions ; it
has no flat alluvial banks and meadows, but simply
fills the hollows of the barren hills on either side,
and consequently it has no regular uniform channel
but resembles rather a succession of lakes or basins
connected by narrower reaches. The haven of Se-
benico is but one of this series, and belongs more to
the river than to the sea, the water being so slightly
salt that in winter it is not unfrequently frozen
over.
For an hour and a half we wound our way be-
tween bluffs of the barest rock which descended
with abrupt slopes into the water. The cliffs were
of a whitish yellow colour, deepening sometimes to a
full orange, and the water, of a turbid greenish
yellow, seemed only another shade of the same
colour. Here and there was the miserable hovel of
a shepherd, which almost escaped observation but
Ch. IX.] Scardona. 411
for the square black spot in the landscape formed by
the hole that served it for a window. This was the
refuge of the herdsman and thirty or forty lean
sheep or goats, which he pastured by day and drove
indoors at night ; but the pasturage is miserable
enough, and it is a saying of the Dalmatians that
their sheep feed on stones. After an hour and a
half the river expanded into a large sheet of water,
the lake of Prokljan, which we ^\'ere warned would
be the end of our journey if a Bora were blowmg,
as the rowers would not be able to get across in the
face of it. Luckily for us Boreas was safely bagged
up, and we got across without trouble, though on
our return there Avas a strong scirocco blowing,
which made the work rather heavy. The compara-
tively level shores of this lake are well clothed with
vines and olives, and no less than three little ham-
lets reflect themselves in the water.
After leaving the lake, however, the river resumes
its old character, and runs between barren white
cliffs till a sudden sweep reveals a wider basin, and
in the gorge of a valley that descends from the left
is the little town of Scardona, with the ruins of an
old castle on a crag above it. The situation is pretty
enough, and in the midst of a dry stony desert it
is a surprise to hear that the air is pestilential and
the people victimized by ague and fever. The sight
of the landlord's face at the little inn where we
ordered dinner to be ready on our return spoke
volumes as to the malarious climate, and as we
wandered about tlie narrow streets we saw every-
412 Scar dona. [Ch. ix.
where the same deathly complexion and the same
dull sunken eye and emaciated form. The malaria
arises from a marsh hehind the town formed by the
stagnant water of a little tributary of the Kerka,
and the partial success of an attempt to drain it and
convert it into orchards and gardens has had a good
effect in diminishing the prevalence of fever, though
the evil is not yet extirpated.
Although there is nothing now to be seen at
Scardona it was once a place of consequence. Pliny ^
mentions it as the capital or ' conventus ' of Japidia
and Liburnia, maritime Illyricum being divided into
three conventus, of which those of Salona and Narona
were the remaining two. After the great Slav
irruption in the seventh century Scardona ceased to
be a Latin town, and is mentioned by Porphyrogen-
itus as one of the towns of the ' baptized Croats 2.'
It remained a Croatian town through the middle
ages, and in 1 1 2 7, on the destruction of Belgrad by
the Venetians, it became the seat of a bishopric
which survived till 1830, when the diocese was
united to that of Sebenico. In 1322 Scardona was
sacked and burned by the Sebenzani on account of
the piratical habits of its inhabitants, which were
encouraged by Mladin Count of Bribir. In 1 4 1 1 it
fell into the power of the Venetians, and was by
them made subject to Sebenico when that city sub-
' Plin. iii. xxi. ' Conventum Scardonitarum petunt lapides et
Liburnorum civitates xiv, e quibus Lacinienses, Stulpinos, Bur-
nistas, Alboneuses nominare non pigeat.'
' Vid. sujx, History, P- 17.
Ch. IX.] Scardona. 413
mitted to them. Scardona, however, with the other
places of the interior, was secured to the Hungarians
by the treaty of Prague in 1437, when Venice was
confirmed in the possession of the maritime cities.
Pressed by the Turks and abandoned by the Hun-
garians, the Croats offered the city to the Venetians
in 1522 ; but the Kepublic was unable to undertake
its defence, and the inhabitants fled to Sebenico,
leaving their city to be occupied by the enemy. In
1537 the Venetians recovered it from the Turks,
but afterwards abandoned it, destroying the foi-tifi-
cations before their departure. The Turks were
again driven out by Foscolo in 1647, ^^^^ Scardona
was not fi.nally recovered till 1683, and the Venetians
were finally secured in then' possession by the jDeace
of Carlovitz in 1699. In 1809 Scardona was con-
demned by the French to be destroyed for having
sided with the Austrians, but it was spared on the
intervention of Marmont, and allowed to purchase
its safety by a penalty of 24,000 ducats.
After such a disastrous history it w^ould be vain
to expect any architectural remams at Scardona.
It is now a village of 900 inhabitants, and has its
industries, among which that of producing silk is
important, and a few years ago it was the place
chosen for a general Industrial Exhibition of Dal-
matian arts and manufactures.
Embarking afresh, we ascended the river for about
three-quarters of an hour through a gorge of the
mountains if possible still more sterile and white
than any we had seen. And lastly, at the end of a
414 Falls of the Kerka. [Ch. ix.
long straight aveiiiie of rock, there appeared the
lovehest vision imagfinable of silver falls set in
rich green foliage, and reflected perfectly in the
still water. At that distance we could neither
hear the roar nor see the movement of the water,
which seemed fixed and silent, caught as it were
in the act of falling, a picture rather than a
reality.
The falls are on a really magnificent scale, reaching
in various interrupted cascades all across the valley.
The damp mist they throw up has encouraged a
luxuriant vegetation, and the whole is embosomed
in rich copses, through which there peeps in every
direction the silver of numerous smaller cascades
leaping down to join the main stream below. The
river does not pour over the ledge in one unbroken
sheet as at Niagara, but in several independent
cascades of various widths, the largest of which
cannot be much less than 200 or 250 feet across.
The total height of the falls, which are broken
into several steps divided by stretches of glassy
rapids, is said to be 1 70 feet. The upper fall is
magnificent, formed by two streams falling together
at an angle and uniting as they fall, but the lowest
fall is perhaps the finest of all, thundering down
into a great basin and throwing up clouds of spray,
in which we saw a rainbow.
About an hour and a half above the falls is the
lake of Vissovaz with a Franciscan convent on an
island, and another hour beyond that brings one
to the fall of Roncislap, which we were unable
Ch. IX.] Falls of the Kcrka. 415
to visit. Beyond that again is tlie Greek convent
of S. Arcangelo which we visited subsequently from
Knin and Kistagne, and near which are the ruins of
the Roman city of Burnum. Higher up, the Kerka
washes the impregnable rock of Knin ; and seven
miles beyond, it issues from its cavern in Monte
Dinara, after a subterranean course which we will
not attempt to trace.
Returning to Scardona we found a tough repast
awaiting us, but even hunger failed to render
palatable the wooden fowl whose innocent life had
been cut short during our absence at the falls, nor
could we make anything of the black beans girkins
and garlic in vinegar which a Dalmatian gentleman,
our companion, devoured as if they had been
potatoes.
As we rowed home in the dusk we induced our
Croat boatmen, who were young and shy, to sing
to us. Their songs were strange wdld melodies
in short snatches and a minor key, all pitched
very high, but they were not unmusical, and made
me not for the first time regret my ignorance of the
language.
There is a small village at the falls consisting
chiefly of mills worked by water power, which have
always been reckoned a valuable possession by the
Sebenzani, and form an article in many of their
treaties and charters of privileges. They are now
turned to excellent account in working a large
pumping engine, which raises the fresh water of
the river and sends it all the way to Sebenico, thus
41 6 Appendix. [Ch. ix.
supplying what an old writer says was the only
thing wanting at Sebenico, namely fresh water'.
The city is now entirely supplied from this source.
^ Palladius Fuscus, a.d. 1540. 'Habent Sibenicenzes ai-va
vinetaque et obliveta fei'acissiraa neque ulla re ex iis quas usus
postulat nisi aqua dulci indigent. Cujus penuria aestivo prae-
sertim tempore adeo laborant ut aliunde advecta publice vendatur.'
APPENDIX.
Contract with Giorgio Orsini for his services as architect of the cathedral of
Sebenico, a.d. 1441. From Monsign. Fosco, as above, vid. p. 98 note.
Die xxii dicti mensis (an. 1441, indictione quarta) actum
Sibenici in platea Comunis. Ad bancum ante Caneellariam
Comunis coram praefato spectabili et honorabili Jacopo
Donate, g-. D. comiti et Capitaneo Sibenici et sua Curia ;
et coram probo Jacobo Nicolini examinatoris Comunis ; prae-
sentibus probo Civitaneo Perisicich nobili sibenicensi, et
probo Lutiano de Ceg*a de Tragurio habitantibus Sibenici
testibus habitis, etc.
Ibique cum licentia, voluntate et consensu Reverendissimi
in Christo Patris et D.D. Georgi Sisgorich Dei et Apostolicae
Sedis gratia Episcopi Sibenicensis et praefati spectabilis g. D.
Comitis et Capitanei Sibenici et ejus Curiae venerabilis vir
dominus presbyter Jacobus Zilienich Canonicus Sibenici et
probus Michael quondam probi Civitani nobilis Sibenici,
tanquam procuratores et procuratorio nomine Ecclesiae Cathe-
dralis et fabricae S. Jacobi de Sibenico per se et successores
suos ac nobiles viri probus Radichius Sisgorich Joannes
Tobolonich Marcus Dobroevich Simon Dunnich et Saracenus
Nicolai cives Sibenici electi et deputati per g-enerale Con-
silium Nobilium Civium Sibenici ad infrascripta et etiam
alia facienda et contrahenda ut apparet j)arte capita in dicto
Ch. IX.] Appendix, 417
Concilio die 23 Mensis Aprilis proximo praeteriti etiam
nomine et vice fabricae et Eeclesiae predictae ex una parte
et providus \dr magister Georgius lapieida quondam ]\Iatliaei
de Jadra haLitator Venetiarum ad praeseus existens Sibenici
ex alia.
In Dei nomine et gloriosae Virginis Mariae et beati Jacobi
Apostoli tales eonventiones et talia pacta invicem fecerunt
et contraxerunt. Quia dictus Magister Georgius i)romisit et
solemniter sc obligavit praedictis procuratoribus et nobilibus
deputatis nominibus quibus supra stipulantibus venire ad
standum et habitandum in Sibenico per totuni mensem
Augusti proximo futuri pro sex annis continuis inccpturis
die quo recedet ex Venetiis modo nuper quando ibit Venetias
pro sua familia reversurus Sibenicum do quo die sui recessus
stabitur simplici verbo ipsius Magistri Georgii. Et cum
fuerit Sibenici promisit superesse pro prothomagistro fabricae
Eeclesiae Cathedralis praedictae S. Jacobi de Sibenico et in
dicta fabrica toto dicto tempore annorum sex facere sollicitare
et procurare laborare et laborari facere aliis laboratoribus,
omnia et singula laboreria et haedificia necessaria ad orna-
mentum et fabricam ipsius Eeclesiae et laborare de sua manu
tam in fabricando quam in sculpendo ad laudem cujuslibet
boni sculptoris et magistri artis lapicidae.
Item promisit ire ad quaseumque petrarias in quncumque
habili loco positas quotiescumque fuerit opjwrtunum i)ro dicta
fabrica et ibi superesse et facere fieri cum bona diligentia
omnia ea quae fuerint necessaria in foditione et conductionc
lapidum pro dicta fabrica non tam puntando nequo scindendo
lapides in petraria neque onerando aut exonerando sed faciendo
ordinando et laborando alia laboreria utilia et necessaria pro
dicta fabrica.
Item promisit quod toto dicto tempore sex annorum non
accipiet aliquod aliud laborerium per eum laboiandum tam
de die quam de nocte sine licentia praedictorum procuratorum
et nobilium sive majoris partis eorum.
Item promisit superesse pro prothomagistro et supcrstante
omnibus aliis laboreriis haedificiis magistris opcrariis et
VOL. 1. E e
4 1 8 Appendix.
manoalibus dictae Ecclesiae et fabricae et eis dare modum
ordinem et mensuras circa laboreria dictae fabricae et eos
appuntare in omnibus et singulis eorum defectibus.
Item promisit et pacto convenit quod quandocumque con-
stiterit et apparebit leg-ittime procuratoribus praedictis et
nobilibus dejmtatis ipsum Magistrum Georgium non facere
suum debitum circa omnia et singula praedicta quod liceat
eis et possint licentiare ipsum Magistrum Georgium ante
terminum praedictorum sex annorum ad libitum eorumque
voluntatem cum consensu Reverendissimi Episcopi et spec-
tabilis Domini Comitis Sibenici qui pro eo tempore fuerint.
Quae omnia et singula superscripta promisit et ad ea se
obligavit dictus Magister Georgius quia versa \dce praedicti
procuratores et nobiles deputati nominibus quibus supra cum
consensu et voluntate ut supra solemniter promiserunt prae-
dicto Magistro praesenti pro se et suis haeredibus et succes-
soribvis dare et solvere eidem pro ejus salario mercede et
manifactura de denariis Ecclesiae et fabricae praedictae anno
singulo ducatos centum quindecim aureos boni et justi
ponderis venetos faciendo eidem Magistro Georgio omni
mense pagam suam pro rata usque ad complementum dicti
termini annorum sex. Et eidem dare habitationem habilem
et condecentem in Sibenico pro toto dicto tempore. Et
solvere eidem nabulum pro veniendo Sibenicum ejus familia
rebus et masseritiis suis . , . .
The contract was renewed for ten years on Sept. i, 1446,
with an addition of five golden ducats to Giorgio's salary.
The building however came to a stand, as we have seen, in
1448, a,nd stood still until 1470,
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